Lok Sabha passes Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Bill, 2015

The Lok Sabha has passed comprehensive Benami Transactions (Prohibition) Amendment Bill, 2015 to curb domestic black money.

The comprehensive amendment bill seeks to amend and strengthen Benami Transaction (Prohibition) Act, 1988 in terms of legal and administrative procedure.

Key Features of Bill 

• The Bill seeks to 
• (i) Amend the definition of benami transactions to widen the scope for legal action 
• (ii) Specify penalties for entering into benami transactions and 
• (iii) establish adjudicating authorities and Appellate Tribunal to deal with benami transactions. It add other transactions which qualify as benami, such as property transactions where: 
• (i) the owner is not aware or denies knowledge of the ownership of the property, 
• (ii) transaction is made in a fictitious name 
• (iii) person providing the consideration for the property is not traceable. 
• The Bill also adds provisions to establish an Appellate Tribunal in order to hear appeals against any orders passed by the Adjudicating Authority. Appeals against orders of the Appellate Tribunal will lie to the high court. The Bill specifies the penalty for providing false information.
• The punishment includes rigorous imprisonment ranging from 6 months up to 5 years, and a fine which may extend to 25% of the fair market value of the benami property. 
• It also intends to effectively prohibit benami transactions and consequently prevent circumvention of law through unfair practices. It empowers the Union Government to confiscate benami property by following due procedure. Therefore it promotes equity across all citizens. 
• The Bill provides immunity under the Benami Act to those who declare their benami properties under income declaration scheme. 

What is a ‘benami’ transaction? 

In literally sense benami means ‘nameless’ or ‘without a name’. The benami transaction refers to property purchased by a person in the name of some other person. In such transactions, the person who pays for the property is directly or indirectly ultimate beneficiary of the property in the future.

ECI launches National Electoral Roll Purification 2016

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has launched National Electoral Roll Purification (NERP) 2016 across the country. The 2016 motto of the ECI is “No voter to be left behind”. 

The NERP 2016 programme aims to improve health of electoral rolls (ERs) and optimize the polling station (PS) location and area. Besides, it also seeks to correct errors in electoral rolls and enrolment of all eligible citizens, among other things.

The twin objectives of NERP 2016 

Improving Health of ERs by-inclusion of all eligible citizens in mission mode 

• Electoral rolls (ERs) to be made Free from errors 
• Every eligible elector will have single ER entry with unique Elector Photo Identity Card (EPIC) number.
•  All Absent (A)/ Dead (D)/ Shifted (S) electors entries and Repeat Entries (REs) will be removed. 
• Provide every elector with Photo Electoral Rolls (PERs) with good quality correct images confirming to ECI standards. 

Standardization of Sections, PS boundaries & Location and improved PS map by 

• Polling station (PS) boundaries will be optimized with standardization of sections using GIS technology. 
• PS will be relocated with in Part or in adjacent parts and Improved PS Map with part map showing directions to reach PS will be provided.
•  PS building image and dimensioned PS room drawing with Basic Minimum facilities (BMF) details will be provided.

Union Cabinet approves incorporation of Sagarmala Development Company

The Union Cabinet has approved the incorporation of Sagarmala Development Company (SDC) to give a push to port-led economic development under ambitious Sagarmala project. 

SDC will be incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013, with an initial authorized share capital of 1,000 crore rupees and a subscribed share capital of 90 Crore rupees.

About Sagarmala Development Company (SDC) 

• SDC will be under the administrative control of the Union Ministry of Shipping. 
• It will provide equity support to the project Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) and funding support to the residual projects under the Sagarmala Programme. 
• Implementation of the identified projects will be taken up mainly through private or PPP mode.
• It will also provide equity support for the project Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs). 
• SDC will mainly identify port-led development projects and assist the project SPVs in project development and structuring activities, bidding out projects for private sector participation.
• It will also put in place suitable risk management measures for strategic projects cutting across multiple States and Regions and obtaining requisite approvals and clearances. 
• SDC will also undertake the preparation of the detailed master plans for the Coastal Economic Zones (CEZs) identified as part of the NPP (National Perspective Plan). 
• SDC will provide a holistic framework for ensuring the integrated development of Indian maritime sector. 
• It will also manage the coastal community development scheme and fund coastal community development projects identified under the Sagarmala Programme. 
• SDC will raise long term capital as per project requirements by leveraging resources provided by Union Government and also from multi-lateral and bilateral funding agencies.

About Sagarmala 

• Project Union Government had launched Sagarmala Project with a view to achieve the broad objective of promoting port-led economic development in India. 
• The ambitious Project seeks to harness vast potential of India’s 7,500 km long coastline, 14,500 km of potentially navigable waterways, and strategic location on key international maritime trade routes. 
• As part of it, a NPP for the comprehensive development of the coastline and maritime sector was prepared. 
• The NPP has identified more than 150 projects across the areas Port Connectivity Enhancement, of Port Modernization & New Port Development, Port-led Industrialization and Coastal Community Development.

7 Indian companies on 2016 Fortune 500 list

Seven Indian companies have made it to the latest Fortune 500 list of the world’s biggest corporations in terms of revenue. Fortune 500 list is an annual ranking of the world’s wealthiest companies, compiled and published by the American business magazine Fortune and published globally by Time Inc. In it companies are ranked by total revenues for their respective fiscal year which has ended on or before March 31, 2015. Revenue figures of companies mainly include their consolidated subsidiaries, reported revenues from the discontinued operations and excluding excise taxes.

Key Facts

• 7 Indian companies are:Indian Oil Corporation (161st), Reliance Industries (215th), Tata Motors (226th), State Bank of India (232nd), Bharat Petroleum (358th), Hindustan Petroleum (367th) and Rajesh Exports (423rd).
•  Global top 10 companies: Walmart (1st), State Grid (2nd), China National Petroleum (3rd), Sinopec Group (4th), Royal Dutch Shell (5th), Exxon Mobil (6th), Volkswagen (7th), Toyota Motor (8th), Apple (9th) and BP (10th).
• The world’s 500 largest companies generated collectively generated 27.6 trillion dollars in revenues and 1.5 trillion dollars in profits in 2015.
• Together, 2016 Fortune Global 500 companies employ 67 million people worldwide and are represented by 33 countries.

PM Narendra Modi lays foundation stone of AIIMS and fertiliser plant in Gorakhpur

Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and revival of fertilizer factory plant in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh.

 The fertilizer factory plant belongs to the Fertiliser Corporation India Ltd (FCIL) and was lying idle since 1990s. It would be revived through a special purpose vehicle (SPV) of public sector units (PSUs) at an estimated cost of 6,000 crore Rupees.

NTPC, Coal India Limited (CIL) and Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL) have formed a joint venture in this regard. The plant is expected to offer 3,000-4,000 jobs to skilled workforce in the state and will also ensure easy availability of urea to farmers.

AIIMS

• The establishment of new AIIMS in Gaurakhpur will serve the dual purpose of providing super-specialty health care to the population.
• Besides, it will also create a large pool of doctors and health workers that can be available for primary and secondary level facilities being created under National Health Mission (NHM).
• The hospital at AIIMS will have a capacity of 750 beds and will also include emergency or trauma and AYUSH sections.
• The AIIMS will be set up under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) which aims at correcting the regional imbalances in availability of affordable and reliable tertiary level healthcare in the country.
• PMSSY also seeks to augment facilities for quality medical education in backward states.

India ranks 110th on Sustainable Development index

• India has been ranked a low 110th out of 149 countries on Sustainable Development index (SDI). 
• The SDI assesses countries where they stand with regard to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also their progress and ensuring accountability.

Key Facts 

• Top 10 Countries: Sweden (1st), Denmark (2nd), Norway (3rd), Finland (4th), Switzerland (5th), Germany (6th), Austria (7th), Netherlands (8th), Iceland (9th) and United Kingdom (10th). 
• Bottom 5 Countries: Chad (145th), Niger (146th), Congo (147th), Liberia (148th) and Central African Republic (149th).
•  India’s neighbours: Pakistan (115th), Myanmar (117th), Bangladesh (118th) and Afghanistan (139th). 
• BIRCS: Russia (47th), China (76th) and India (110th). 
• The countries closest to fulfilling the SDGs are not the biggest economies but comparably small, developed countries. 
• Poor and developing countries score lowest on the SDG Index as they have little resources at their disposal. Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries struggle to meet the goals on climate change, inequality, sustainable consumption and ecosystems.
•  Developing countries face major difficulties in providing basic social services and infrastructure access to their populations. 
• For Latin America and the Caribbean countries face challenge of high levels of inequality among the most pressing issues. 
• East and South Asia outperform many other developing regions but unmet challenges mostly persist in health and education. 
• Sub-Saharan Africa which is the world’s poorest region faces major challenges across almost all SDGs, with extreme poverty, hunger and health as major areas. 

About Sustainable Development index (SDI) 

• The SDI seeks to help countries identify gaps that must be closed in order to achieve SDGS by 2030 and to identify priorities for early action. 
• The new index was launched by Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) and the Bertelsmann Stiftung. 
• Methodology: SDI ranks countries based on their performance across the 17 global SDGs. The index helps countries to identify priorities for early actions. 

About Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 

SDGs are 17 global non-binding goals featuring 169 targets to be implemented from 2015 to 2030. These goals and targets are a set of ambitious objectives across the three dimensions of sustainable development viz. economic development, social inclusion and environmental sustainability, underpinned by good governance.

Union Government launches Transforming India website

The Union Government has launched Transforming India Website (www.transformingindia.mygov.in), a repository for sharing the impact of various governance initiatives with citizens in real-time.

 It was launched by the Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology and Law & Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad in New Delhi.

Key Facts 

• The website provides community based platform facilitates for two-way communication between the government and citizens. 
• It is also a social platform on which users can share their opinions about various initiatives of the government. 
• The key facet of the website is to promote accountability in major national initiatives, act as a repository of major policies and decisions of Union Government.
•  It also seeks to provide a central platform to citizens for sharing of transformational changes that they see around themselves. 
• This website will provide information in a user-friendly format that will enable citizens to view the content in the form of Infographics, e-books, performance dashboard. 
• It will also present information in videos, daily news corner etc. format and engage with the content by comments and sharing the content through Social Media.

Lifeline Express: World’s first hospital on a train completes 25 years of service

The Lifeline Express, the world’s first hospital on a train of Indian Railways has completed 25 years of service to the poor and underprivileged masses of rural India. 

To mark the occasion and celebrate the success of the train a function was held in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

About Lifeline Express 

• The Lifeline Express is also known as the Magic Train of India. It was launched on 16 July 1991. 
• The Lifeline Express has the distinction of being the first ever hospital-on-rails in the world. 
• It is equipped with state-of-the-art medical facilities and equipment to cater to the needs of the rural patients.
•  The train is a flagship social initiative of Impact India Foundation (IIF) in partnership with the Indian Railways and the Union Health Ministry. 
• It was started with an aim to provide on-the-spot diagnostic, medical and advanced surgical treatment for preventive and curative interventions for disabled adults and children using the Indian Railway Network. 
• So far, the train covered 173 projects in 18 state and also covered 2 lakh kilometres distance and has medically served more than 10,00,000 poor in rural India.

Madhya Pradesh becomes first state to have Happiness Department

Madhya Pradesh became the first state in India to have ‘Happiness Department’ that will work as knowledge resource centre on the subject of happiness on the lines of Bhutan. 

Decision to set up Happiness Department was taken by the state cabinet meeting presided by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.

Key Facts 

• The Happiness Department will will work under a working committee headed by a chairman. The committee will evaluate the state’s gross happiness. 
• The department will prepare guidelines for coordination between different departments like women and child development, health, and sports for propagating happiness in the state. 
• It will prescribe action plan and activities for experiencing happiness by identifying and defining the parameters of happiness and efficiency.
• It will also undertake constant researches and surveys for expanding means happiness and improve norms to assess them. It will publish reports pertaining to status of happiness. 

Bhutan is the first country in the world to come up with the concept of Gross National Happiness (GNH). It has fixed standards of living, education, good governance, health and psychological happiness among the various parameters that make its citizens happy. The World Happiness Report 2016 published by the United Nations ranks India at 118th position among 156 countries.

Nalanda Mahavihara enters UNESCO’s World Heritage Site list

The ruins of ancient Nalanda Mahavihara (also known as old Nalanda University) of Bihar has been included in the Tentative List of UNESCO’s World Heritage Site. 

Nalanda Mahavihara ruins comprise the archaeological remains of monastic-cum-scholastic from the 5th century BC to the 13th century AD. It located near Patna, state capital of Bihar.

Key Facts 

• Nalanda Mahavihara was founded by Kumargupta I of the Gupta dynasty in 5th century CE. It was the earliest planned university of the Indian subcontinent.
•  It was patronized by various rulers including King Harshavardhana of Kannauj (7th century CE) and the Pala rulers (8th to 12th century CE) as well as various scholars.
•  Nalanda was considered as a rare combination of outstanding achievements in institution-building, site-planning, art and architecture.
•  It had attracted scholars from the Indian subcontinent and beyond and received patronage of local rulers and foreign kings for period of 800 years. 
• Students were admitted in this university after rigorous evaluation only.
•  It imparted knowledge related to Buddhism, contemporary texts and philosophies, logic, grammar, science, and medicine. 
• Presently, it is preserved in number of remains of stupas (temple-like structure), shrines and viharas (residential-cum-scholastic structure) and important art works in stucco, stone and metal. 

Note: 

Nalanda University is the second World Heritage site in Bihar after Bodhgaya’s Mahabodhi temple to be accorded UNESCO’s World Heritage Site tag. This status will help in conservation and protection of the site in better way and also increase funds from the UNESCO.

11th ASEM Summit issues Ulaanbaatar Declaration

The eleventh edition of the Asia-Europe Meeting Summit (ASEM11) or ASEM2016 has issued Ulaanbaatar Declaration. 

The declaration has reaffirmed ASEM’s commitment for greater partnership through informal political dialogue and initiatives in economic and socio-cultural fields. It also has expressed its commitment for united fight against terrorism and violent extremism.

Key Features of Declaration 

• ASEM will enhance its partnership in order to meet the aspirations of the people for peace and stability, sustainable development, economic prosperity and a better quality of life. 
• It will strive to further strengthen Asia-Europe multi-dimensional and people-centered partnership. 
• It will also focus on countering terrorism, maritime security and safety, fighting piracy and armed robbery at sea, as well as drug and human trafficking. 
• ASEM will reaffirm its commitment for cyber security, cyber-crime, security of in the use of information and communication technologies.
•  It will also reaffirm upholding the purpose and principles of the UN Charter, rule of law and enforcement of international law, human rights, anti-corruption, migration, Sustainable Development and climate change. 
• ASEM will reinforce its role as a catalyst for effective multilateralism and a rules-based international order in the shifting geopolitics leading to greater uncertainties and volatility in the world.

BRICS drug control meeting begins in New Delhi

The second anti-drug working group meeting of heads of anti-narcotics agencies of BRICS countries began in New Delhi to discuss issues related to narco-terrorism and money laundering. 

The one day meeting was inaugurated Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh. It has been organised by the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of India.

Key Facts 

• The meeting will see participation of delegates from the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) member countrie. 
• The Indian delegation will be headed by Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Director General of Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).
•  It will comprise officers from the Department of Revenue, Union Ministry of Finance, Union Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Union Ministry of Health and Family welfare and Narcotics Control Bureau, Union Ministry of Home Affairs. 

Background 

• The anti-drug working group meeting of heads of anti-narcotics agencies has been organised by India in accordance with the ‘eThekwani Declaration’ adopted during the BRICS summit in March 2013 at Durban, South Africa. 
• Under the ‘eThekwani Declaration’ BRICS countries had decided to explore economic issues and various new areas of cooperation among the member States including drug-related issues.

India, South Africa sign MoUs in four areas of co-operation

India and South Africa have signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) and agreements in four areas of bilateral co-operation. 

These MoUs were signed in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and South African President Jacob Juma in Pretoria, South Africa. 

PM Narendra Modi Modi had arrived in South Africa from Mozambique on the second leg of his four-nation tour of Africa. 

Signed agreements 

• MoU on Tourism. 
• MoU on Grass root innovation (Science and Technology) 
• MoU on Information and Communication technology (ICT). 
• Both countries also signed Programme of Cooperation in Arts and Culture. 

Besides, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had one to one talk with the South African President Jacob Juma on various issues. Both countries have agreed to cooperate in combating terrorism, regionally and globally. They also focused on enhancing business and investment ties further in areas of minerals, mining, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. India also thanked the South African President for support to India’s NSG membership.

Union Government launches KVK portal for monitoring of farm centres

The Union Government has launched Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) portal (http://kvk.icar.gov.in). It was launched by Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Radha Mohan Singh in New Delhi. 

The portal aims to provide information and advisory to the farmers and facilitate online monitoring of the KVK activities. 

Features of Portal 

• Provides provisions for online monitoring of KVKs. Reporting of major events of KVKs on regular basis and submission of monthly reports online. 
• Provide information on different services being provided by different KVKs. 
• Provide weather and market related information to the farmers and others. 
• Government’s forthcoming programmes will also be available on it. 
• It will help create awareness about various programmes and benefit farmers and youth in joining different training programmes being organized by KVKs. 
• Question and answer facility is available for the farmers on the portal. 
• Agriculture related information of the districts is available. Agricultural Officers and the farmers may register themselves and seek different informations related to KVKs. 
• The mandate of KVK is technology assessment and demonstration for its application and capacity development. At present there are 645 KVKs operational in the country.

Union Government constitutes cyber cell to check online abuse and harassment of women

The Union Ministry of Women and Child Development (WCD) has constituted a cyber-cell to check the online abuse and harassment of women and children on social media platforms. Announcement in this regard was made by Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi in New Delhi. 

Key facts 

• The WCD Ministry has advised women and children to send their complaints, if they are being abused or harassed on social media platforms using the hashtag #IamTrolledHelp. 
• The cyber-cell was constituted in the wake of reported increase in abuse or harassment of women on social media. Besides, WCD Ministry will be working with Twitter India to address abusive behaviour, violent threats (direct or indirect), harassment on social media 
• They will also be working together for the empowerment of women and children to deal with abuse, harassment and hateful conduct on social media. 
• The complaints received by the WCD Ministry, which are of a grave nature will be reported to Twitter India for necessary action. 
• The Ministry will also be working with the Cyber-crime Cells of the police, wherever required.

Captain Radhika Menon: First woman to receive Exceptional Bravery award at Sea

Captain Radhika Menon became the first woman in the world to receive the Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea for the year 2016 from the International Maritime Organisation (IMO). 

She will be bestowed with this award for saving the lives of seven fishermen, whose hopes of survival were all over. The award will be presented to her at the ceremony set to take place at IMO Headquarters in London on 21 November 2016. She was chosen by 116th session of IMO Council meeting held in London. 

Captain Menon had displayed great determination and courage in leading the difficult rescue operation in the Bay of Bengal in June 2015. 

She had rescued all seven fishermen from the fishing boat Durgamma, which was adrift following engine failure and loss of anchor in severe weather. For this bravery she was nominated for the award by the Government of India.

About Radhika Menon 

• She had joined the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) as a trainee radio officer in 1991. She was the first woman to do so and is native of Kodungallur in Kerala. 
• Later on she ascended the hierarchy by clearing exams for the posts of second mate and chief mate and did the sea time required to appear for the master’s certificate in 2010. 
• In 2011, Radhika Menon had made history by becaming the first woman to become captain of Indian Merchant Navy. In 2012, she took charge of MT Suvarna Swarajya.

 Award for Exceptional Bravery at Sea: It is an annual Award established by IMO. It seeks to provide international recognition for those who perform acts of exceptional bravery at the risk of losing their own life.

India’s first integrated Defence Communication Network launched

India’s first integrated Defence Communication Network (DCN) was launched by Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar in South Block, Delhi 

The network will enable India Army, Air force, Navy and the Special Forces Command to share situational awareness for a faster decision-making process.

Key Facts 

• DCN is the largest single satellite network in the Indian Defence Forces, spread across the country. It is a strategic, highly secure and scalable system. It has has a pan-India reach from Ladakh to the North East to island territories. 
• The tri-communication network makes voice data and video data accessible to the three services over a secured network.
•  It has been designed, developed and deployed by the information technology services, distribution and digital solutions firm HCL Infosystems. 
• It is capable of working on both terrestrial as well as satellite mode of communication and has also been fixed onboard different military vehicles. 
• HCL Infosystems has had a long association with the Indian Defence sector. The company has closely worked with the Indian Air Force (IAF) to deploy AFCEL (Air Force Cellular Network) and Air Force Network (AFNet). 
• AFNet: It is the first network of its kind for Indian armed forces which interlinks major installations throughout the country on a high bandwidth network and incorporates latest traffic transportation technology in the form of Internet Protocol.

FSSAI inks MoU with ASCI to check misleading advertisements in food and beverages sector

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has inked a MoU with Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) to check misleading advertisements in the food and beverages sector.

 This partnership between FSSAI and ASCI will put in place a mechanism to monitor misleading advertisements. It will also lead to streamlining advertisements effectively through structured guidelines and appropriate action.

Key Facts 

As part of the MoU, ASCI will comprehensively monitor these advertisements across various media. 

FSSAI has given a suo motu monitoring mandate to ASCI to process complaints against misleading advertisements of food and beverages.

 ASCI will report to FSSAI, the non- compliance of its decisions for further action as required per provisions of the FSS Act.

 FSSAI will also redirect complaints against misleading food and beverages advertisements to ASCI, which will be reviewed using ASCI’s code and guidelines. 

The review will include violation of the FSS Act and regulations related to advertisements making unsubstantiated, misleading or false claims. 

About Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI)

 ASCI is a self-regulatory voluntary non-governmental organization (NGO) of the advertising industry in India. 

Aim: To maintain and enhance the public’s confidence in advertising.

Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra. 

Established: 1985 by three main constituents of advertising industry viz advertisers, advertising agencies and media.

President Pranab Mukherjee presents BC Roy National Awards for 2008, 2009 & 2010

President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday presented the Dr BC Roy national awards for 2008, 2009 and 2010 at Rashtrapati Bhavan. 

These awards were presented on the occasion of National Doctors’ Day observed on July 1 to pay honour and tribute to India’s most famous physician Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy.

The awardees are 

2010: Nikhil C. Munshi, O.P. Kalra, Tejinder Singh, Subash Gupta, Amrinder Jit Kanwar, Rajendra Prasad and Glory Alexander. 

2009:H. Sancheti, Renu Saxena, Atul Kumar, A.K. Kriplani, Kanan A. Yelikar, H.S. Bhanushali, G.V. Rao, Moti Lal Singh, C.N. Purandare and C.V. Hari Narayan. 

2008: Rajeshwar Dayal, Mammen Chandy, Neelam Mohan, Rohit V. Bhatt, Mohan Kameswaran, Harsha Jauhari, Gopal H. Badlani and Yash Gulati.

About BC Roy Awards 

The BC Roy Awards were instituted by the Medical Council of India in 1976 in memory of renowned physician and former West Bengal Chief Minister Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy. 

They are bestowed annually in the following categories: Statesmanship of the Highest Order in India, Eminent Medical Person, Medical man-cum-Statesman, Eminent person in Philosophy, Eminent person in Arts and Eminent person in Science.

RIL, SBI ink Subscription and Shareholders’ Agreement for payments bank JV

Telecom-to-energy conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL) and India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) have signed Subscription and Shareholders’ Agreement to set up payments bank. 

As per the agreement, RIL will be the promoter with a 70 per cent equity contribution in the payments bank and SBI as joint venture will have 30 per cent equity contribution.

Background

• RIL-SBI combine was among the 11 entities that were in August 2015 were given licence by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to start a payments bank.
•  So far two of these – Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Co and Sun Pharma, IDFC Bank and telecom operator Telenor have decided to shelve plans of launching payments bank. 

About Payments banks 

• Payments banks are small deposit-taking institutions that can accept deposits (initially up to 1 lakh rupees per individual). 
• Besides, they will offer Internet banking, facilitate money transfers and sell insurance and mutual funds by piggy-backing on existing retail or other networks. 
• They can also issue ATM/debit cards, but not credit cards. However, they are also not allowed to lend. Instead, they can invest 75% of their deposits in short-term government bonds.

India ranks 105th in 2016 Human Capital Index

India was ranked low at 105th position out of 130 countries globally on the 2016 Human Capital Index (HCI), which was recently released in the World Economic Forum (WEF) report. The report was released by Geneva-WEF in the Chinese city of Tianjin at its Annual Meeting of New Champions which is also known as `Summer Davos’ summit. 

Key Facts

• Top 10 Countries in 2016 HCI: Finland (1st position), Norway (2nd), Switzerland (3rd), Japan (4th), Sweden (5th), New Zealand (6th), Denmark (7th), Netherlands (8th), Canada (9th) and Belgium (10th). 
• India’s Neighbours: Sri Lanka (50th), China (71st), Bhutan (91st), Bangladesh (104th), Nepal (108th) and Pakistan (118th). 
• Among BRICS countries: India is ranked lowest as against Russia (28th), China (71st), Brazil (83rd) and South Africa (8th). In the 2015 edition of HCI, India had ranked 100th out of total 124 countries.
•  India related: India has got better rankings HCI’s indicators such as quality of education system (39th), staff training (46th) and ease of finding skilled employees (45th). India is the second largest country in the global distribution of tertiary degree holders share at nearly 78 million after China (2.5 million) in STEM subjects (science, technology , engineering and mathematics). 
• India’s concern: India has optimised just 57% of its human capital endowment. Its youth literacy rate is still only 90% (103rd in the world).
•  In case of labour force participation, India ranks low as it has world’s largest employment gender gaps (121st). 

About Human Capital Index 

• The Human Capital Index measures countries’ ability to nurture, develop and deploy talent for economic growth.
•  It is based on 46 indicators about how well countries are developing and deploying their human capital, focusing on education, skills and employment. 
• The WEF report of HCI presents an analysis by focusing on a number of key issues that can support better design of education policy and future workforce planning