04 February 2023

DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYSIS

1 – Banking Sector of India: GS III – Topic Indian Economy

Context:

• The banking sector was still strong and steady, according to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in a statement on February 3.
• The central bank of India stated that “many indices relating to capital adequacy, asset quality, liquidity, provision coverage, and profitability are robust” in a statement about the state of the Indian banking sector. It continued by stating that banks had complied with the Large Exposure Framework (LEF) guidelines set forth by the RBI. The statement’s author claimed that it was prepared in reaction to media reports that raised concern about the exposures of Indian banks to a commercial conglomerate.

First Phase (1786–1947):

• The country’s first bank, known as “Bank of Hindustan,” was established in 1770 in Calcutta, which served as India’s capital at the time. Despite this, the bank was a failure and closed in 1832.
• The majority of the more than 600 banks that were authorised to operate in the country before independence have long since disappeared.
• During the British rule of India, the East India Company built three banks: the Bank of Bengal, the Bank of Bombay, and the Bank of Madras. They together went by the name of the Presidential Banks.
• These three banks finally merged to create the “Imperial Bank of India,” a solitary organisation, in 1921.
• Prior to being nationalised and changing its name, the State Bank of India, the largest public sector bank in the nation, operated under the name Imperial Bank of India.

After Independence:

(1947–1991):

• When India gained its independence, all of its main banks were privately owned, which posed questions because rural communities continued to rely on moneylenders for financial support.
• To address this issue, the then-Government decided to nationalise the banks. The Banking Regulation Act of 1949 was used to nationalise these banks.
• The Reserve Bank of India, on the other hand, was nationalised in 1949.
• After the State Bank of India was established in 1955, another 14 banks were nationalised between 1969 and 1991. These were the banks that have government deposits totaling more than 50 crores.
• Six further banks were nationalised in 1980, increasing the total to twenty.
• In addition to the 20 banks mentioned earlier, seven SBI subsidiaries were also nationalised in 1959.
• With the exception of the State Bank of Saurashtra and the State Bank of Indore, which were merged in 2008 and 2010, all of these banks were merged into the State Bank of India in 2017.
• The Age of Liberalization

(1991–present): The liberalisation period:

• After the country’s banks were established, continual supervision and adherence to regulations were required to maintain the profits made by the banking sector.
• It’s important to consider where the banking industry is in its development right now.
• In order to ensure the stability and profitability of the Nationalized Public Sector Banks, the government decided to organise a committee under the leadership of Shri. M. Narasimham to oversee the various banking reforms in India.
• The emergence of private sector banks was the most significant development in India. The Reserve Bank of India authorised the opening of ten private sector banks.

India’s banking industry:

• The Indian financial system has two categories: “Scheduled Banks” and “Non-scheduled Banks.”
• To be listed in the Second Schedule of the RBI Act, 1934, schedule banks must satisfy the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that their operations do not put the interest on their deposits in jeopardy. A paid-up capital and reserve of at least Rs. 5 lakh is also required for schedule banks.
• Non-scheduled banks are those that do not comply with the requirements of the RBI Act, 1934’s second schedule because they are not listed in it.
• The phrase “scheduled banks” is used to refer to both “scheduled cooperative banks” and “scheduled commercial banks.”
• Public Sector Banks, also known as “Nationalized Banks” and “State Bank of India (SBI) Banks,” Private Sector Banks, which are further divided into “Old Private Sector Banks” and “New Private Sector Banks” that have emerged since 1991, Foreign Banks in India, and Regional Rural Banks, make up the Scheduled Commercial Banks (that operate exclusively in rural areas to provide credit and other facilities to small and marginal farmers, agricultural workers, and small entrepreneurs).
• The country is home to representative offices, full branch/subsidiary operations, and foreign banks.
• With the exception of foreign banks, these designated commercial banks are registered under the Companies Act in India.

Role of RBI:

• The RBI is the leading monetary and banking body in the country and regulates the Indian financial industry. It is known as the Reserve Bank because it holds the reserves of all commercial banks.
• In accordance with the provisions of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, the Reserve Bank of India was established on April 1, 1935.
• The Reserve Bank’s Central Office was formerly located in Calcutta until being permanently relocated to Mumbai in 1937. The governor is seated in the main office, where policies are created.
• The Reserve Bank was formerly privately owned, but since being nationalised in 1949, the Indian government has full ownership of the organisation.
• The government has frequently amended the RBI Nationalisation Act of 1949, increasing its responsibilities in response to altering demands.

Its current responsibilities can be summed up as follows:

• It entails the formulation, implementation, and oversight of monetary policy. To pursue expansion while maintaining pricing stability is the main goal.
• It also replaces or destroys currency notes and coins that are no longer useful for usage, with the exception of the rupee or its denominations, which are issued by the Ministry of Finance.
• Another responsibility in this function is distributing cash and coins (of those ones also which are issued by the Ministry of Finance).
• The main goal is to always have enough good coins and cash on hand.
• Within its broad framework for banking activities, the banking and financial system is capable of operating.
• The main goals of this position are to protect depositor interests, maintain public confidence in the system, and provide accessible financial services to the general public.
• It is in charge of the Foreign Exchange Management Act of 1999, which sets the rupee’s exchange rate, maintains the country’s foreign exchange reserves, and represents the Indian government at the IMF and World Bank (and other international financial agencies of which India is member).
• The goals of this position include encouraging the nation’s foreign exchange market’s orderly development and maintenance as well as enabling international trade and payments.
• It builds and updates secure, efficient payment mechanisms across the nation to fulfil the needs of the general population. The objective is to keep the public confident in the payment and settlement system.
• In its capacity as a banker for the federal and state governments, it carries out three categories of tasks: first, performing merchant banking services for them; second, acting as their banker; and third, monitoring the accounts of the SCBs (scheduled commercial banks) that are present in the country (domestic, foreign, public, and private).
• The general goals are to make it possible for governments and banks to mobilise enough liquidity for their operations in order to manage government borrowing plans and provide short- and long-term loans to banks (as Lender of Last Resort).
• As part of its development responsibilities, the RBI created several developmental banks, including IDBI, SIDBI, NABARD, NEDB (North Eastern Development Bank), Exim Bank, and NHB.
• The RBI is gradually giving the Indian government ownership of these banks.

 Source The Hindu

2 – IMF: GS II – Topic International Organizations

Context:

• On January 31, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) stated that it anticipates a slight slowdown in the Indian economy for the upcoming fiscal year, projecting growth to 6.1% from 6.8% for the current fiscal year ending March 31.
• The January update to the IMF’s World Economic Outlook was announced on Tuesday. According to this forecast, global growth is expected to decline from an estimated 3.4% in 2022 to 2.9% in 2023 before increasing to 3.1% in 2024.

What are the goals of the IMF?

• Encourage international financial cooperation
• Stable financial situation
• Help trade internationally
• Encourage high employment and long-term economic expansion.
• Also a reduction in global poverty
• Macroeconomic expansion
• Advice on public policy and funding for emerging nations,
• Fostering the development of an international payment system and currency rate stability.

How Does the IMF Operate?

Its three most important tasks are:

• Enhancing global monetary cooperation, promoting increased commerce and economic progress, and discouraging measures that might be detrimental to prosperity.
• IMF member nations collaborate with one another and with other international organisations to carry out these missions.

What is the IMF’s history?

• In July 1944, a UN meeting took place in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, when the idea for the IMF, sometimes known as the Fund, emerged.
• In order to prevent a recurrence of the competitive devaluations that had contributed to the Great Depression of the 1930s, the 44 nations present at that meeting wanted to establish a framework for economic cooperation.
• Countries had to be IMF members in order to be eligible for membership in the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD).
• In order to promote global financial cooperation, the IMF implemented a system of convertible currencies with fixed exchange rates and substituted gold as the official reserve with the U.S. dollar (gold at $35 per ounce).
• The IMF has supported the system of floating exchange rates since the Bretton Woods system (system of fixed exchange rates) collapsed in 1971. The value of currencies in relation to one another is determined by market forces because countries are free to choose their exchange system. This framework is still in use today.
• IMF estimates that during the 1973 oil crisis, 100 developing nations that imported oil saw a rise in their foreign debt of 150% between 1973 and 1977, which was further compounded by a global switch to floating exchange rates. Between 1974 and 1976, the IMF oversaw a brand-new loan initiative known as the Oil Facility. It was made available to nations experiencing severe problems with their trade balance as a result of the surge in oil prices and was funded by oil-exporting countries and other lenders.
• One of the most important institutions in the global economic system, the IMF provided for a balance between the resuscitation of international capitalism and the enhancement of national economic sovereignty and human welfare, or embedded liberalism.
• The former Soviet Union’s nations were greatly assisted by the IMF in making the switch from centrally planned to market-based economies.
• A wave of financial crises engulfed East Asia in 1997, affecting countries as far apart as Korea, Thailand, and Indonesia.
• In order to help the worst impacted economies avoid default, the International Monetary Fund developed a number of bailouts (rescue packages) that were conditional on financial, banking, and currency reforms.
• (2008) Global Economic Crisis: In order to adapt to a more linked and globally integrated society, the IMF undertook significant steps to strengthen monitoring.
• These initiatives included updating the legal framework for surveillance to account for spillovers (when economic policies in one country may have an impact on those in another), deepening analysis of risks and financial systems, stepping up assessments of members’ external positions, and responding more quickly to member concerns.

What roles does the IMF play?

• Financial Assistance: The IMF lends money to member nations experiencing balance of payments issues in order to replenish foreign reserves, stabilise currencies, and improve the environment for economic growth. Governments must implement structural adjustment plans that are supervised by the IMF.
• IMF It keeps an eye on the 190 nations that make up its membership’s economic and financial policies as well as the global monetary system.
• The IMF emphasises potential stability risks as part of this process, which occurs both globally and in specific nations, and offers guidance on necessary policy adjustments.
• Capacity Development: It gives central banks, finance ministries, tax authorities, and other financial institutions technical support and training.
• Developing robust legal frameworks, enhancing governance, modernising banking systems, increasing public revenue, and improving the reporting of macroeconomic and financial data are all aided by this. Additionally, it aids nations in advancing toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

 Source The Hindu

3 – Law Commission of India: GS II – Topic Statutory and Non-Statutory Bodies

Context:

• On Friday, the Supreme Court rejected a request to transfer the issue of whether “forcible conversion” should be classified as a separate offence under the Indian Penal Code to the Law Commission of India.
• “Why should we approach the Law Commission about this?” D.Y. Chandrachud, the Chief Justice of India, questioned.
• The Chief Justice’s inquiry was in response to a claim made by prominent attorney Arvind Datar, who was representing Ashwini Upadhyay, that forcible conversion should be classified as an offence under Chapter 15 of the Penal Code (offences connected to religion).
• Upadhyay’s petition alleging that “deceitful and coercive religious conversion” was widespread in India was dismissed as vexatious by senior counsel Dushyant Dave, who was speaking against Mr. Upadhyay. He claimed that the petition made “unpalatable” comments against minorities’ religious practises.

About the Law Commission:

• The Law Commission of India was created by an order of the Government of India and is an executive body, not a statutory or constitutional authority. Its primary duty is to promote legal reforms.
• The Commission was created with a set term in mind and serves as a consultative body for the Ministry of Law and Justice.
• Most of its members are legal professionals.

 What is the Indian Law Commission’s history?

• In Indian history, law reform has been an ongoing process, especially over the past 300 years or so. When religious and customary law predominated in antiquity, the reform process had been ad hoc and had not been institutionalised through properly organised law reform organisations.
• However, since the third decade of the nineteenth century, the government has occasionally created Law Commissions with the authority to suggest legislative reforms to clarify, consolidate, and codify particular departments of law when it deemed it necessary.
• The first such commission, presided over by Lord Macaulay, was constituted in 1834 as a result of the Charter Act of 1833 and made recommendations for codifying the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code.
• After that, in 1853, 1861, and 1879, the second, third, and fourth Law Commissions were established, adding a wide range of laws modelled after the then-current English Laws and tailored to Indian conditions to the Indian Statute Book over a fifty-year period.
• The first four Law Commissions produced the Indian Code of Civil Procedure, the Indian Contract Act, the Indian Evidence Act, the Transfer of Property Act, etc.

What has changed since independence?

• Following independence, Article 372 of the Constitution mandated that pre-Constitutional laws remain in effect until they are changed or abolished.
• The creation of a Central Law Commission had been demanded both inside and outside of Parliament in order to make recommendations for the modification and updating of the inherited laws to meet the shifting needs of the nation.
• In 1955, the Indian government established the First Law Commission of Independent India, presiding over it as Mr. M. C. Setalvad, the country’s Attorney-General at the time. Since then, 21 further Law Commissions, each with a three-year tenure, have been appointed.
• The 22nd Law Commission of India will be established in 2020 and will be in place for three years.

What duties does the Law Commission have?

• On a request from the Central Government or on its own initiative, the Law Commission conducts legal research and reviews the country’s existing laws in order to make amendments and establish new legislation.
• It also conducts investigations and research to bring about changes to the justice delivery systems that will end procedural delays, expedite case resolution, lower litigation costs, etc.
• The Law Commission also performs the following duties:
• Examines the laws that have an impact on the poor and conducts a post-audit for socio-economic laws.
• Recommending the passage of new legislation as would be required to put the Directive Principles into practise and achieve the goals outlined in the Preamble of the Constitution.
• Considering and sharing with the Government its opinions on any matter pertaining to law and judicial administration that may be specifically addressed to it by the Government through the Ministry of Law and Justice (Department of Legal Affairs).
• Research: Taking into account any requests from foreign nations that the government, through the Ministry of Law & Justice, may refer to it for (Department of Legal Affairs).
• Examine the legislation already in place to promote gender equality and make suggestions for changes.
• Analyze how globalisation has affected food security and unemployment, and suggest policies to safeguard the interests of the disadvantaged.
• Preparing and presenting reports on all matters, studies, and research it has conducted to the Central Government on occasion, and proposing in those reports that the Union or any State take effective action.
• Performing any additional duties that may occasionally be given to it by the Central Government.
• Before putting its recommendations into practise, the Commission interacts with the relevant Ministries and Departments as well as any other parties it deems relevant.

 Source The Hindu

4 – EVM: GS II – Topic Election-related issues

Context:

• The government announced on Friday that there were no plans to use remote electronic voting machines during any upcoming elections. NRI voters would also not be permitted to use RVMs.
• According to the Election Commission (EC), the RVM has not been proposed for use in the country’s upcoming elections, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said in a statement to the Lok Sabha.
• The Lok Sabha elections would occur in 2024, despite the fact that several Assembly elections are anticipated for this year.

There are electronic voting machines in India (EVMs):

• The Indian electronic voting machine (EVM) was developed in 1989 by the Election Commission of India in collaboration with Bharat Electronics Limited and Electronics Corporation of India Limited.
• The first electronic voting devices were used in a small number of polling booths in Kerala’s North Paravur Assembly Constituency in 1982.
• Electronic voting machines (EVMs) were used for the first time in the 1999 general election (statewide) for the Goa assembly.
• The election commission chose to utilise electronic voting machines solely for the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 after its successful use in all state and by-elections in 2003.
• A standard battery produced by Electronic Corporation of India Limited or Bharat Electronics Limited powers EVMs.
• The EVMs used by the Indian Election Commission can only record up to 2,000 votes.
• There is a 64 candidate limit for the use of M2 EVMs (2006–2010), including NOTA.
• 384 candidates, including NOTA, are the maximum that may employ M3 EVMs (Post 2013).

Who designed the EVM?

• The design of the EVMs was a joint effort by the Technical Experts Committee (TEC) of the Election Commission and two public sector organisations, Bharat Electronics Ltd. in Bangalore and Electronic Corporation of India Ltd. in Hyderabad.
• The EVMs are made by the two businesses mentioned above.

 About Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT):

• Voters can verify that their votes were cast as intended by connecting the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) to a separate system known as the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT).
• Serial numbers, candidate names, and symbols allocated to them are fed into the VVPAT unit with the help of the manufacturer’s engineers.
• A slip with the candidate’s name, symbol, and serial number is printed and exposed for 7 seconds after a vote is cast through a clear window.
• After being mechanically cut, the printed slip is deposited into the VVPAT’s secure drop box.
• VVPATs with EVMs were used in the first bye-election for the Nagaland Noksen Assembly Constituency.
• The VVPATs and EVMs are maintained in a secure strong room until the end of the election petition period.

 Advantages of implementing EVMs:

• There is no longer any chance of casting “Invalid Votes.”
• EVMs have made it possible to accurately and honestly reflect voter preference.
• When using EVMs, it is not necessary to print millions of ballots for each election. This drastically lowers the price of paper, printing, shipping, storing, and distributing.
• The counting process is quite quick, and the results can be declared in 3 to 5 hours, as opposed to the traditional Ballot paper system, which frequently takes 30 to 40 hours to accomplish.
• A device known as a “Totalizer” that aggregates votes without divulging the candidate-by-candidate total of each individual EVM used at a particular polling location can hold up to 14 Control Units.
• The technical merits of totalizers and other relevant issues are being looked into, and they are also the subject of a legal dispute, hence they are not currently being used in India.

 Source The Hindu