1. RBI constitutes Deepak Mohanty Committee to frame
action plan on financial inclusion
i. Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) has constituted a committee to prepare a 5 year action plan to
spread the reach of financial services across country to unbanked population.
The committee will be headed by RBI executive director Deepak Mohanty and
comprise total of 14 members
ii. It will review
the existing policy of financial inclusion, including customer protection
framework and supportive payment system. In this regard it will take into
account the recommendations made by various committees set up earlier.
iii. Suggest a
monitorable medium-term action plan for financial inclusion. It will cover
various components including payments, credit, deposit, social security
transfers, pension and insurance. Articulate the underlying institutional and
policy framework for financial inclusion. Cover financial literacy and consumer
protection, as well as delivery mechanism of financial inclusion.
iv. For this the
committee will encompass both households and small businesses, with more
emphasis on rural inclusion including group-based credit delivery mechanisms.
2. Kumbh Mela Begins in Nashik, Thousands Take Holy
Dip
i. Simhastha Kumbh
Mela, the largest congregation of faith in the world, began today with the
traditional ceremony of hoisting of flags and thousands of people taking a holy
dip in Kushawart and Ramkund in Godavari river in the two towns.
ii. The festival,
known as the largest peaceful gathering, occurs once in 12 years as per Hindu
calendar and is marked by participation of 'sadhus' from different
denominations (akhadas), and lakhs of devotees. Kumbh is also known for the
religious pomp and colourful processions.
iii. The festival
will last for 58 days till August 11. On the occasion of flag-hoisting at
Trimbakeshwar, a Naval chopper showered rose petals on the sea of humanity that
has gathered for the mega event.
iv. After the
ceremony, thousands of people who have come to Nashik from different parts of
the country took a dip at Kushavart teerth (pond) located near the temple of
Lord Shiva.
3. Varanasi chosen as 'city of music' by UNESCO
i. In a development
set to tremendously boost its age-old traditions, Varanasi has joined the
global bandwagon of UNESCO "Cities of Music" under the Creative
Cities Network.
ii. It has been
chosen in the music category under UNESCO's "field of excellence"
plan. The fields of excellence are classified into categories of literature,
film, music, craft and folk art, design, media arts and gastronomy
iii. The inclusion
in the network has also paved way for representing the cultural heritage of the
holy city on the world stage through the UNESCO project. It will not only provide
a fillip to tourism, but will also give a chance to local artists and musicians
to visit countries that are a part of this network
iv. Nine cities —
Glasgow in the UK, Hanover and Mannheim in Germany, Ghent in Belgium, Hamamatsu
in Japan, Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo, Bogota in Columbia, Seville in
Spain and Bologna in Italy — are a part of UNESCO "Cities of Music".
4. FM Arun Jaitley tries to improve BJP-SAD ties,
launches HRIDAY for 12 cities in Amritsar
i. Jaitley choose
Amritsar to launch the "National Heritage City Development and
Augmentation Yojana " ( HRIDAY) for 12 cities in the country.
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ii. Government of
India has sanctioned ` . 69.31 crore as 100% grant for Amritsar city.
iii. The Union
Finance Minister said that Punjab, being a cradle of Indian civilization, was
all set to lead the country in the arena of agriculture and defense for which
it was aptly known as the sword arm and granary of the nation.
iv. Making a strong
case for the farmers, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said that it was the
high time to redress the grievances of beleaguered peasantry, which was on
cross roads due to the apathy of the previous Congress governments at the
Centre.
5. Agri Ministry launches 3 portals
i. The Centre
launched three new websites for farmers here on Wednesday aimed at making
organic farming certification, fertiliser quality checks and disbursal of soil
health cards easier. The portals, developed by National Informatics Centre, are
part of the existing schemes.
ii. The
‘Participatory Guarantee System’ portal will help small and marginal farmers
engaged in organic farming to secure certification after checks for compliance
to standards are carried out.
iii. The ‘Soil
Health Card’ portal has been developed to register soil samples and record
tests results along with fertiliser recommendations to create a national
database on soil health for future use in research.
iv. The ‘Fertiliser
Quality Control System’ portal will collate results of drawn samples of
imported fertilisers helping both consumers and importers with analysis
reports.
6. Net neutrality report: Fate of Airtel's zero
rating plan left to TRAI
i. Airtel had
launched Airtel Zero under which it offered a platform for content owners,
e-commerce players, and start-ups to offer free data access to users. This was
seen to be against the principles of net neutrality by some sections as it
allowed free access to only those companies which had resources to partner with
Airtel.
ii. The Committee,
after consideration of all opinions expressed by Net Neutrality proponents and
network operators, feels that there are a multitude of possibilities in
designing tariff plans and it would not be possible to either pre-think all
possibilities or determine its validity with respect to Net Neutrality
principles.
iii. The Committee
proposed that tariff plans (including zero rating plans) be dealt with in the
following ways: (i) Ex-ante determination — Before a licensee launches any
tariff plan, the same would need to be filed before TRAI within a reasonable
period prior to the launch of the plan. TRAI would examine each such tariff
filing carefully to see if it conforms to the principles of Net Neutrality and
that it is not anti-competitive by distorting consumer markets.
iv. Such a filing
requirement would include a deemed approval clause, if the regulator does not
decide within a reasonable period. This would ensure balance of interests,
protecting the liberty of service providers to design specific tariff plans
attuned to specific customer demands and at the same time ensure that the
principles of Net Neutrality are not breached.