Daily Current Affairs : 6th June

Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE

Topics Covered

1. Commercial Paper
2. Cabinet Committee on Investment & Growth, C.C on Employment & Skill development
3. Rule 49 MA
4. Indian Navy Environment Conservation Roadmap (INECR)

1 . Commercial Paper

Context :A day after mortgage lender Dewan Housing Finance Corporation Ltd (DHFL) delayed interest payment to the investors of non-convertible debentures (NCD), ratings agency ICRA downgraded the commercial paper (CP) of the lender to junk grade.

About Commercial Paper

• Commercial Paper (CP) is an unsecured money market instrument issued in the form of a promissory note.
• It was introduced in India in 1990 with a view to enabling highly rated corporate borrowers to diversify their sources of short-term borrowings and to provide an additional instrument to investors. Subsequently, primary dealers and all-India financial institutions were also permitted to issue CP to enable them to meet their short-term funding requirements for their operations.
• Corporates, primary dealers (PDs) and the All-India Financial Institutions (FIs) are eligible to issue CP.
•  All eligible participants shall obtain the credit rating for issuance of Commercial Paper either from Credit Rating Information Services of India Ltd. (CRISIL) or the Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India Ltd. (ICRA) or the Credit Analysis and Research Ltd. (CARE) or the FITCH Ratings India Pvt. Ltd. or such other credit rating agency (CRA) as may be specified by the Reserve Bank of India from time to time, for the purpose. The minimum credit rating shall be A-2
• CP can be issued for maturities between a minimum of 7 days and a maximum of up to one year from the date of issue.However,the maturity date of the CP should not go beyond the date up to which the credit rating of the issuer is valid.
• CP can be issued in denominations of Rs.5 lakh or multiples thereof.
• Individuals, banking companies, other corporate bodies (registered or incorporated in India) and unincorporated bodies, Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) etc. can invest in CPs. However, investment by FIIs would be within the limits set for them by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) from time-to-time.

Eligibility

A corporate would be eligible to issue CP provided –

• the tangible net worth of the company, as per the latest audited balance sheet, is not less than Rs. 4 crore
• company has been sanctioned working capital limit by bank/s or all-India financial institution/s; and
• the borrowal account of the company is classified as a Standard Asset by the financing bank/s/ institution/s.

2 . Cabinet Committee on Investment & Growth, C.C on Employment & Skill development

C.C on Investment & Growth

• To address the twin problems of sluggish economic growth and rising unemployment, the government has constituted two Cabinet committees to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
• The five-member Committee on Investment and Growth consists of Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister for Road Transport and Highways and MSME Nitin Gadkari and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal.
• This committee will be a focussed group to take measures to bring investments and spur growth in the critical sectors including infrastructure, manufacturing and agriculture, as the economy is passing through a highly volatile period.
• With the GDP falling to 5.8% in the last quarter of 2018-19, lowest in last five years, the committee on economic growth will prepare a road map to bring the economy back on the growth trajectory.

C.C on Employment & Skill Development

• The government on Wednesday set up a 10-member Cabinet Committee on Employment and Skill Development with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as its chairman.
• Employment data for 2017-18, released on May 31 after the Lok Sabha elections, said India’s unemployment rate rose to 6.1% in the period, the highest in 45 years.
• In addition to the Prime Minister, the committee includes Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Railway Miinister Piyush Goyal, Minister of Agriculture Narendra Singh Tomar, Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’, Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister Skill and Entrepreneurship Mahendra Nath Pandey and Ministers of State Santosh Kumar Gangwar (Labour) and Hardeep Singh Puri (Housing and Urban Affairs).

3 . Rule 49 MA

Context : The Election Commission may “revisit” the rule for prosecution of a voter for making a false complaint of malfunction of an electronic voting machine or a voter verifiable paper audit trail machine

About Rule 49MA

• A voter who claims that the EVM or the VVPAT machine did not record his or her vote correctly is allowed to cast a test vote under Rule 49 MA of the Conduct of Election Rules.
• However, if the voter fails to prove the mismatch, poll officials can initiate action under Section 177 of the Indian Penal Code for giving a ‘false submission’.
• The Section says the person “shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both.
• EC has maintained that if there is no penal provision, people may make false claims. 

Arguments Against the rule

• Putting the onus on the elector in cases of arbitrary deviant behaviour of machines used in election process infringes upon a citizen’s right to freedom of expression under the Constitution.
• Penal Provisions could deter an elector from coming forth and making any complaint which is an essential ingredient in a continuous exercise for improving a process
• The elector cannot be convicted by the evidence of second vote for the alleged incorrect reporting of the discrepancy in the first vote cast in absolute secrecy, unless and until he himself is made a witness in his own case, in violation of the provision of Article 20(3) of the Constitution
• Due to the pre programmed deviant behaviour of electronic machines it is not necessary that he can produce the same result.

4 . Indian Navy Environment Conservation Roadmap (INECR)

Context : The Indian Navy has formulated an environment conservation roadmap aimed at reducing energy consumption and diversifying its supply, an official statement said.

About INECR

• Under the INECR, numerous policies aimed at reduction of energy consumption and environment sustenance have been formulated and disseminated to all ships, as well as shore establishments, it added.
• The Indian Navy Environment Conservation Roadmap (INECR), with specific action plans, covers the entire gamut of operations, maintenance, administration and infrastructure, and community living
• The roadmap envisions reduction in energy consumption and diversification of energy supply as key result areas
• Navy has pledged 1.5 per cent of its ‘Works’ Budget towards renewable energy generation, it added.
• Solar photovoltaic projects have been one of the focus areas of the Navy since the inception of the INECR.
• Similarly, pilot projects utilising wind or a mix of both solar and wind (hybrid) are also being taken up progressively, which will not only reduce carbon footprint but also help achieve self-sustenance in energy security