
Indian Women’s Hockey Team won FIH Series 2019

- Indian Women’s Hockey team won the FIH ( Fédération Internationale de Hockey) Women’s Series Finals 2019 after defeating the host Japan by 3-1 in the finals held at the Hiroshima Hockey Stadium, Japan.
- Indian team Captain Rani Rampal scored the first goal in the 3rd minute.
- Rani Rampal was the best player of the tournament and Gurjit Kaur emerged as the top-scorer.
- Indian team had already qualified for the FIH Olympic Qualifiers 2019.
Samant Kumar Goel appointed New RAW Chief

- Samant Kumar Goel, a 1984 batch IPS officer of Punjab cadre appointed as chief of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for a fixed two-year term.
- He is said to have played a key role in planning the Balakot air strike after the Pulwama terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir and surgical strikes in Uri.
Arvind Kumar appointed New IB Head

- Arvind Kumar (59), a 1984 batch IPS (Indian Police Service) officer from Assam- Meghalaya cadre has been made the chief of Intelligence Bureau (IB) for the tenure of two years.
- Kumar is considered an expert on the Kashmir and Naxal issues. He has been working with the Intelligence Bureau since August 1991 and has also served in the Indian Embassy in Moscow, Russia.
Go Tribal Campaign by launched Tribes India


- “Go Tribal Campaign” by Tribes India was launched by Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, Smt. Renuka Singh.
- TRIFED organized this event to institutionalize collaborations and partnerships with different organizations to promote tribal products. It is an organization under Ministry of Tribal Affairs and is engaged in marketing development of tribal products under the brand name “TRIBES INDIA”.
- Tribes India in association with Amazon Global Marketing launched TRIBES India products globally through Amazon platform. It also collaborated with Central Silk Board for development, promotion, marketing of tribal silk products.
Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) |
1. ‘The Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India’ was established in 1987 with the basic objective of the TRIFED is to provide good price to the products made or collected from the forest by the tribal people. 2. It is a national-level apex organization functioning under the administrative control of Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Govt. of India. TRIFED has a network of its (Member Federations) and (13 offices) all over India with its headquarters in New Delhi. 3. In order to provide good price to the agricultural products the government has setup the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) in 1985 which declares the Minimum Support Price for agricultural products. In the same way the government has set up the TRIFED in 1987 to provide fair price to the products made by the tribal communities of the country. |
Broadband Connectivity to Gram Panchayats under BharatNet Project
- All Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country will be connected with the high-speed broadband under BharatNet Project by March 2020.
- The objective is to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to rural India.
- It is being funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
President’s Rule in J&K extended for 6 Months
- The Union Government given its approval for the extension of President’s Rule under Article 356 of Indian Constitution in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) for six more months beginning July 3, 2019.
- The state was under Governor’s Rule on J&K on June 20, 2018; President’s rule was imposed in December 2018. Under Section 92 of the Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, there is no provision for further continuation of Governor’s rule after six months.
- Governor Satypal Malik on November 21, 2018, dissolved the 87-member state assembly after the PDP, supported by the Congress and their arch-rivals National Conference, had staked claim to form the government. The governor had dissolved the assembly citing horse-trading and lack of stability to form a government as the reasons.
President’s Rule (Article 356) |
Proclamation: By the President when the govt of a State cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution (even without Governor’s Report) or when a State fails to comply with any Center direction (Art 365) Continuation: 1. To be approved by both Houses (by simple majority) within 2 months 2. Can be extended to a maximum period of 3 years (subject to approval in every 6 months) 3. However, after 1 year special conditions are to be fulfilled: National Emergency is in operation or ECI must certify that general elections cannot be held. Discontinuation: By President only Effect: 1. President dismisses the State Council and on his behalf, Governor carries the administration with the help of chief secretary. 2. Legislative Assembly is either dissolved or suspended. Parliament passes the State Legislature bills. 3. Parliament can also delegate power to make laws to the President or any other authority specified by him. 4. A law made by the Parliament or the President continues to be in operation after the President’s Rule, it can be repealed by the State Legislature. 5. It has been the most controversial and criticized provision of the Constitution. However, the satisfaction of the President is not beyond Judicial Review. 6. Further, SC in Bommai Case (1994) has laid down the ‘Proper and Improper’ situations for imposing it. Read more about Emergency Provisions in the Constitution here. |
RBI relaxed Leverage Ratio to help expend lending
- The RBI relaxed the Leverage Ratio (LR) for banks in a bid to help them expand their lending activities. The Leverage Ratio (LR) reduced to 4% for Domestic Systemically Important Banks (DSIBs) and 3.5% for other banks with effective from October 1, 2019.
- A leverage ratio is any one of several financial measurements that look at how much capital comes in the form of debt (loans) or assesses the ability of a company to meet its financial obligations.
- The leverage ratio category is important because companies rely on a mixture of equity and debt to finance their operations and knowing the amount of debt held by a company is useful in evaluating whether it can pay its debts off as they come due.
- Too much debt can be dangerous for a company and its investors. However, if a company’s operations can generate a higher rate of return than the interest rate on its loans, then the debt is helping to fuel growth in profits.
Current Account Deficit increased to 2.1% of GDP
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) stated that India’s Current Account Deficit (CAD) increased to 2.1% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in FY19 as against 1.8% of 2018. It was the highest in 6 years on due to higher trade deficit caused by high crude oil imports.

Current Account Deficit (CAD) |
What is it? The current account measures the flow of goods, services and investments into and out of the country. 4 components of Current Account: 1. Goods- trade in goods 2. Services (invisible) – trade in services eg. tourism 3. Income- investment income 4. Current unilateral transfers- donations, gifts, grants, remittances Current Account Deficit (CAD): CAD = Trade Deficit + Net Income From Abroad + Net transfers Is CAD harmful for the economy? 1. If a CAD is financed through borrowing, it is unsustainable because borrowing lead to high interest payments in the future. 2. Attracting capital flows (hot money, FII) to finance the deficit is risky as when confidence falls, hot money flows dry up, leading to a rapid devaluation and crisis of confidence. (Eg. East Asian Crisis) 3. Run a CAD necessarily means running a surplus on the capital account. This means foreigners have an increasing claim on your assets, which they could redeem any time. CAD need not be harmful? 1. CAD during a period of inward investment particularly stable long term FDI may not be a bad things as investment can create jobs. Investments will lead to higher growth will be able to pay debts back. 2. Developing countries may use CAD to buy Capital goods and later export consumer goods and thus repay the debt. What is Twin Deficit? Current Account Deficit and Fiscal Deficit together are knows as twin deficits and often both reinforce each other i.e. High fiscal deficit leads to higher CAD and vice versa. Read more about Budget and Fiscal Policy here |