CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Union Cabinet recently approved a ₹30,600-crore backstop facility for guaranteeing securities to be issued by the National Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd. (NARCL).The NARCL, also called ‘bad bank’, is being set up to help aggregate and consolidate lenders’ non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans.

The Union government recently announced higher Minimum Support Price (MSP) for rabi crops to boost their production. Notably, crops such as oilseeds and pulses have witnessed a higher percentage rise in their MSP when compared to major crops such as wheat.

Recently, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) discovered remains of an ancient temple dating back to the Gupta period (5th century) in a village in Uttar Pradesh’s Etah district. The stairs of the temple had ‘shankhalipi’ inscriptions..

Every functioning system needs regular corrections, so is India's largest democracy, which is praised for conducting “free and fair elections”. It is high time to introspect whether we have imbibed the democratic spirit and if we exercise it without fear or favour.

The resumption of North Korea’s largest fissile material production reactor, after operations were ceased in December 2018, has sparked speculation about its real and symbolic significance.

According to a new study presented at the ACM SIGCOMM 2021 Conference, a powerful solar storm can cause a disruption of the internet, damage submarine cables and communication satellites.

Many merchants and e-commerce entities force customers to store debit or credit card details, which increases the risk of card data being stolen. This can be avoided now with the Reserve Bank of India allowing tokenisation of cards while making payments.

The crisis caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic in the country and at global level has led to a debate about fresh thinking and new approaches to manage the economy and the future of humanity.

The National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP) is a bold initiative which the government takes to help  fulfill infrastructure gaps in the country. The NMP is not about the sale of government-owned assets or privatisation or disinvestment.

The deterioration in the quality of deliberation in Parliament over time has prompted calls for reform from different stakeholders. Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana also highlighted this problem, noting that the ambiguities and gaps in laws passed without meaningful deliberation trigger avoidable litigation.