1. Global debt hits all-time high of USD 184 trillion: IMF
• The International Monetary Fund said that global debt has reached an all-time high of 184 trillion US dollars with the United States, China and Japan accounting for more than half of it.
• According to the IMF report, the amount in nominal terms, is the equivalent of 225 per cent of the world GDP in 2017.
• On average, the world`s debt now exceeds 86,000 dollars per person, which is more than two and half times the average income per-capita.
2. Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to notify the Korean Won (WON) and Turkish Lira (TRY) in the List of Currencies for Exchange Rate
• Under Section 14 of the Customs Act, 1962, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) notifies the Rate of Exchange for the purpose of conversion of foreign exchange to Indian Rupees (INR) and vice versa for assessment of imports & exports.
• Currently, CBIC notifies exchange rates for 20 currencies for the purpose of valuation of imported and exported goods and it has been now decided to include 2 more currencies namely Korean Won (WON) & Turkish Lira (TRY) in the list of such currencies.
• Bilateral Trade between India-South Korea grew to $16.36 Billion during 2017-18 from $12.59 Billion in 2016-17 and South Korea is ranked 8th amongst India’s trade partners in terms of imports during 2017-18.
• Bilateral trade between India & Turkey also stood at US $ 7.2 Billion during 2017-18.
3. Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE) 2018
• World Bank has released its report — Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy (RISE) 2018 — charting global progress on sustainable energy policies. The report was released on the sidelines of the 24th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change(COP24).
• Among countries with large populations living without electricity, 75 per cent had by 2017 put in place the policies and regulations needed to expand energy access. But there were still significant barriers to global progress on sustainable energy.
• While countries continue to be focused on clean energy policies for electricity, policies to decarbonize heating and transportation, which account for 80 per cent of global energy use, continued to be overlooked.
• This momentum was particularly marked in renewable energy. Among the countries covered by RISE, only 37 per cent had a national renewable energy target in 2010. By 2017, that had grown to 93 per cent.
• By last year, 84 per cent of countries had a legal framework in place to support renewable energy deployment, while 95 per cent allowed the private sector to own and operate renewable energy projects.
• Among the four SDG7 target areas — renewable energy, energy efficiency, electricity access and access to clean cooking — the last one continued to be the most overlooked and underfunded by policymakers.
• There has been little progress on standard-setting for cookstoves or on consumer and producer incentives to stimulate adoption of clean technologies.
4. Year End Review 2018 – MNRE
• India attains global 4th and 5th positions in wind and solar power installed capacities; India now at 5th global position for overall installed renewable energy capacity.
• A total of 101.83 billion units of power were generated in the country during the year 2017-18 from renewable energy
• The Government has declared the trajectory of bidding 60 GW capacity of solar energy and 20 GW capacity of wind energy by March 2020, leaving two years’ time for execution of projects.
• India has 5th Global position for overall installed renewable energy capacity, 4th position for wind power and 5th position for solar power.
• Registered lowest ever solar tariffs in India of Rs.2.44 per unit in reverse auctions carried out by Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) in May 2017, for 200 MW and again in July, 2018, for 600 MW.
• Registered lowest ever wind tariff of Rs.2.43 per unit in a tender of 500 MW project by Gujarat Government in the month of December 2017.
• The cumulative renewable energy installed capacity has increased from 35.51 GW as on 31.03.2014 to 73.35 GW as on 31.10.2018 (increase of around 106% during last four &a half years). The capacity addition of over 37.84 GW grid connected renewable power has been achieved during last four & half years (2014-15 to 2018-19) which includes 21.7 GW from Solar Power, 13.98 GW from Wind Power, 0.7 GW from Small Hydro Power and 1.5 GW from Bio-power.
5. World Bank assisted project SMART launched in Maharashtra
• Maharashtra Government has launched World Bank assisted State of Maharashtra’s Agribusiness and Rural Transformation (SMART) Project to transform rural Maharashtra. This project aims to revamp agricultural value chains, with special focus on marginal farmers across 1,000 villages.
• This initiative is in line with Union Government’s step towards doubling farmers’ income by 2022.
• The launch of project which was followed by signing of 50 memorandum of understandings (MoUs) between big corporates and farmer`s producer groups.
• The project will be implemented in 10,000 villages comprising 10,000 gram panchayats which were shortlisted by state government based on multiple parameters of socio-economic backwardness in terms of development and growth.
6. Major ports in India have recorded a growth of 4.83%
• The major ports in India have recorded a growth of 4.83% and together handled 461.21Million Tonnes of cargo during the period April to November, 2018 as against 439.96 Million Tonnes handled during the corresponding period of previous year.
• For the period from April- November 2018, Nine Ports Kolkata (incl. Haldia), Paradip, Visakhapatnam, Kamarajar, Chennai, Cochin, New Mangalore, JNPT and Deendayal have registered positive growth in traffic.
• The highest growth was registered by Kamarajar Port (20.15%), followed by Cochin (11.73%), Paradip (9.73%), Kolkata [inc. Haldia] (8.52%) and Deendayal( 7.37%) Kamarajar Port growth was mainly due to increase in traffic of Container (19.8%), Other Liquids(16.42%), Thermal & Steam Coal (10.71%) and POL (9.24%) .
• During the period April to November 2018, Deendayal Port handled the highest volume of traffic i.e. 77.33 Million tonnes (16.77% share), followed by Paradip with 71.30 Million Tonnes (15.46% share), JNPT with 46.40 Million Tonnes (10.06% share), Visakhapatnam with 43.03 Million Tonnes (9.33% share) and Mumbai with 40.32 Million Tonnes (8.74%). Together, these ports handled around 60.36% of Major Port Traffic.
• The Commodity-wise percentage share of POL was maximum i.e. 33.40%, followed by Container (20.71%), Thermal & Steam Coal (15.09%), Other Misc. Cargo (10.64%), Coking & Other Coal (8.13%), Iron Ore & Pellets (5.65%), Other Liquid (4.25%), Finished Fertilizer (1.18%) and Fertilizer Raw Materials (FRM) (0.95%).
7. RBI proposes new method to benchmark floating rate of loans for MSMEs
• In a bid to ensure greater transparency, Reserve Bank has proposed that floating interest rates on personal, home, auto and MSMEs loans be linked to external benchmarks like repo rate or treasury yields.
• Currently, banks follow system of internal benchmarks, including Prime Lending Rate, Benchmark Prime Lending Rate, Base rate and Marginal Cost of Funds based Lending Rate.
• The new system is likely to become operational by 1st April 2019.
• The banks should decide the benchmark rate system to be followed right at the inception of the loan and it should remain unchanged through the life of the loan.
• Adoption of multiple benchmarks by the same bank will not be allowed within a loan category.
8. RBI to reduce the statutory liquidity ratio by 0.25 percent every quarter beginning January next year
• The Reserve Bank said that it will reduce the statutory liquidity ratio by 0.25 percent every quarter beginning January 2019.
• Statutory Liquidity Ratio - SLR - is the portion of funds which banks are required to maintain in the form of cash, gold reserves, the government approved securities before providing credit to the customers.
• The reduction will continue until it reaches 18 per cent from the current 19.5 percent.
• The move is likely to release funds locked in government securities and add to lendable liquidity.
• In order to improve liquidity management by banks, RBI will release the CRR figure of banks to market participants on the very next day.
• Currently, the cash reserve ratio balance of banks is disclosed with a lag of 2-3 days, while the details of the currency in circulation are being released with a lag of one.