Overview of Topics
- Schemes for achieving gender Equality and Emancipation of Rural Women
- Schemes for combating discrimination and violence against women
- 16th International Energy Forum (IEF) Ministerial Meeting
- Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Report
- Reserve Bank of India : Stop dealing with Virtual Currencies
- Reserve Bank of India switches back to GDP backed growth estimates
Schemes for achieving gender Equality and Emancipation of Rural Women
Schemes for achieving gender Equality and Emancipation of Rural Women
- The Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing various schemes/programmes for achieving gender equality and emancipation of women including rural women such as:
1. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP):
- To address the declining Child Sex Ratio (CSR) and related issues of empowerment of women over a life-cycle continuum.
- It is a tri-ministerial effort of Ministries of Women and Child Development, Health and Family Welfare and Human Resource Development.
2. Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY), (erstwhile Maternity Benefit Programme)
- To contribute towards better enabling environment by providing cash incentives for improved health and nutrition to pregnant and nursing mothers.
3. Scheme for Adolescent Girls
- Aims at girls in the age group 11-14, to empower and improve their social status through nutrition, life skills, home skills and vocational training.
- The scheme aims at providing supplementary nutrition containing 600 calories, 18-20 grams of protein and micronutrients per beneficiary per day for 300 days in a year, motivating out of school girls to go back to formal schooling or skill training under non-nutrition component of the scheme.
- The cost norms for nutrition have also been revised from existing rates of Rs.5.00 per beneficiary per day to Rs.9.5 per beneficiary per day.
- Government has also approved phased expansion and universalisation of the Scheme for Adolescent Girls i.e. in additional 303 districts in 2017-18 and the remaining districts in 2018-19 with the simultaneous phasing out of Kishori Shakti Yojana.
4. National Nutrition Mission (NNM):
- Aims to attain a "Suposhit Bharat" and has also the objective of improving the nutritional status of pregnant women and lactating mothers and reducing anaemia among women along with children.
- Aims to achieve improvement in nutritional status of Children, pregnant women and lactating mothers and reduce anemia among children and women.
- It strives to reduce the level of stunting, under-nutrition, anemia and low birth weight babies.
- It will create synergy, ensure better monitoring, issue alerts for timely action, and encourage States/UTs to perform, guide and supervise the line Ministries and the States/ UTs to achieve the targeted goals.
5. Rastriya Mahila Kosh (RMK)
- For extending micro-finance services to bring about socio-economic upliftment of poor women,
6. Mahila e-Haat
- A unique direct online digital marketing platform for women entrepreneurs/ SHGs/ NGOs,
7. Pradhan Mantri Mahila Shakti Kendra
- Which will empower rural women through community participation to create an environment in which they realize their full potential
8. Training of Trainers of Elected Women Representatives of Panchayati Raj
- To deliberate upon issues related to empowerment of women and functioning of PRIs; describe processes of participatory planning in local governance; and enable women to identify their own leadership potential to contribute effectively as change agents.
9. ‘Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP) Scheme’
- The Ministry is administering ‘Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP) Scheme’ to provide skills that give employability to women and to provide competencies and skill that enable women to become self-employed/entrepreneurs.
- The Scheme is intended to benefit women who are in the age group of 16 years and above across the country.
Schemes for combating discrimination and violence against women
Schemes for combating discrimination and violence against women
The Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing various schemes/programmes for combating all forms of discrimination and violence against women in the country including rural women such as:
1. One Stop Centres (OSCs):
- For facilitating access to an integrated range of services including police, medical, legal, psychological support and temporary shelter to women affected by violence.
2. Women Helpline:
- To provide women with a 24x7 service, Women Helplines with the uniform code 181 have been set up across the country. These Helplines provide 24 hour emergency response to women affected by violence, and also provide counselling through phone and awareness about government schemes.
3. Mahila Police Volunteers:
- The Ministry, in collaboration with MHA has recently started the engagement of Mahila Police Volunteers (MPVs) in States/UTs. These MPVs will act as a link between police and community and facilitate women in distress.
4. Swadhar Greh:
- This scheme caters to primary needs of women in difficult circumstances.
- MWCD implements Swadhar Greh Scheme which targets the women victims of unfortunate circumstances who are in need of institutional support for rehabilitation so that they could lead their life with dignity.
- The Scheme envisages providing shelter, food, clothing and health as well as economic and social security for the women victims of difficult circumstances which includes widows, destitute women and aged women.
5. Ujjawala:
- A comprehensive scheme to prevent trafficking of women and children for commercial sexual exploitation, to facilitate rescue victims and placing them in safe custody, to provide rehabilitation services by providing basic amenities/needs, to facilitate reintegration of victims into the family and society, to facilitate repatriation of cross border victims.
6. ‘Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP) Scheme’
- The Ministry is administering ‘Support to Training and Employment Programme for Women (STEP) Scheme’ to provide skills that give employability to women and to provide competencies and skill that enable women to become self-employed/entrepreneurs.
- The Scheme is intended to benefit women who are in the age group of 16 years and above across the country.
16th International Energy Forum (IEF) Ministerial Meeting
16th International Energy Forum (IEF) Ministerial Meeting
What is the issue ?
- India will host the 16th International Energy Forum (IEF) Ministerial Meeting in April 2018 in New Delhi.
About the meeting :
- The biennial IEF Ministerial Meetings are the world's largest gathering of Energy Ministers who engage in a dialogue on global energy issues.
- Petroleum Ministers from 42 countries would attend the Meeting
- The IEF Ministerial meetings are informal dialogues, at both the political and technical levels, aimed to improve policy and investment decisions, and through increased knowledge and experience sharing.
About the International Energy Forum (IEF) :
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The International Energy Forum (IEF) is an inter-governmental arrangement set up in 1991.
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Based in Riyadh which serves as a neutral facilitator of informal, open, informed and continuing global energy dialogue among its members comprising of energy producing and energy consuming states, including transit countries.
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There are 72 membercountries of IEF, including India, covering all six continents, which are signatories to the Charter of the IEF.
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Its membership accounts for 90% of global supply and demand for oil and gas.
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The Executive Board (EB) set up in 2002 comprising of 31 designated representatives of Ministers of the member states comprise the governing board of IEF. It meets twice a year.
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International Energy Agency (IEA) and Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) are non-voting members of the Executive Board.
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By virtue of being among the top 11 largest consumers of oil and gas (India is presently 4th), India has been the Permanent Member of the Executive Board since its set-up in 2002.
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India had earlier hosted the 5th IEF Ministerial in 1996 at Goa.
Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Report
Reserve Bank of India's Monetary Policy Report
What is the issue ?
- RBI released its seventh bi-monthly monetary policy report.
Highlights of the report
- Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the benchmark repo and reverse repo rates unchanged at 6 percent and 5.75 percent, respectively.
- The RBI projected economic growth of 7.4% for the current fiscal year that began on 1 April.
- RBI warns rising trade protectionism and financial market volatility could derail global recovery.
- RBI says Indian companies and banks must continue cutting debt
- Central bank exploring creation of a digital currency, forms panel to study and submit report by June
Policy Rates :
- Repo rate: It is rate at which RBI lends to its clients generally against government securities.
- Reverse Repo Reverse Repo Rate: It is rate at which banks lend funds to RBI.
- Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Rate: It is rate at which scheduled banks can borrow funds from RBI against government securities.
- Bank Rate: It is rate charged by central bank for lending funds to commercial banks. It influences lending rates of commercial banks.
- Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR): It is amount of funds that banks have to keep with RBI.
- Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR): It is amount that banks have to maintain a stipulated proportion of their net demand and time liabilities (NDTL) in form of liquid assets like cash, gold and unencumbered securities, treasury bills, dated securities etc
Reserve Bank of India : Stop dealing with Virtual Currencies
Reserve Bank of India : Stop dealing with Virtual Currencies
What is the issue ?
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has asked banks to stop providing service to any entity dealing with virtual currencies, with immediate effect.
What has the RBI said ?
- Entities regulated by it shall not deal with or provide services to any individual or business entities dealing with or settling virtual currencies.
- However, we also recognise that the blockchain technology or distributed ledger technology that lies beneath the virtual currencies has a potential benefit for financial inclusion. We believe they can be exploited for the benefit of the economy.
What is a cryptocurrency ?
- Digital money which uses 'cryptography', which makes it almost untrackable to track purchases and transfers.
- They allow for p2p or peer to peer transactions, eliminating the need for third parties.
Some cryptocurrencies :
Bitcoin: Was the first and is the most commonly traded cryptocurrency to date. The currency was developed by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009, a mysterious figure who developed its blockchain. It has a market capitalisation of around $45 billion as of July 2017.
Ethereum: Developed in 2015, ethereum is the currency token used in the ethereum blockchain, the second most popular and valuable cryptocurrency. Ethereum has a market capitalisation of around $18bn as of July 2017.
Ripple: Ripple is another distributed ledger system that was founded in 2012. Ripple can be used to track more kinds of transactions, not just of the cryptocurrency.
Litecoin: This currency is most similar in form to bitcoin, but has moved more quickly to develop new innovations, including faster payments and processes to allow many more transactions. The total value of all Litecoin is around $2.1 billion.
How do cryptocurrencies work
- Cryptocurrencies use decentralised technology to let users make secure payments and store money without the need to use their name or go through a bank.
- They run on a distributed public ledger called blockchain, which is a record of all transactions updated and held by currency holders.
- Units of cryptocurrency are created through a process called mining, which involves using computer power to solve complicated maths problems that generate coins. Users can also buy the currencies from brokers, then store and spend them using cryptographic wallets.
Reserve Bank of India switches back to GDP backed growth estimates
Reserve Bank of India switches back to GDP backed growth estimates
What is the issue ?
- The Reserve Bank switched back to the gross domestic product (GDP) based measure to offer its growth estimates from the gross value added (GVA) methodology, citing global best practices.
What's the difference ?
- While GVA gives a picture of the state of economic activity from the producer's side or supply side, the GDP model gives the picture from the consumers’ side or demand perspective.