29 November 2023 : Daily Current Affairs
Daily Current Affairs
29-November-2023
1. NASA head Bill Nelson meets Jitendra Singh, discusses joint mission to International Space Station
Topic: GS3- Science and technology
Context: NASA Administrator Bill Nelson met the Union Minister for Science and Technology Dr. Jitendra Singh on Tuesday to discuss India’s research interests during the joint mission to the International Space Station (ISS) next year for which the U.S. will be training an Indian astronaut.
Information on the News:
- The collaboration was announced by U.S. President Joe Biden during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bilateral visit in June during which India also signed the Artemis Accords—a non-binding set of principles designed to guide civil space exploration and use.
- The NASA Administrator is in India beginning November 27 to hold a series of meetings.
- Nelson will also visit facilities in Bengaluru where the NISAR spacecraft, a joint Earth-observing mission between NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is undergoing testing and integration for launch in 2024.
NISAR:
- NISAR is short for NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar. The NISAR will be launched in the first quarter of 2024.
- The NISAR is part of the Great Observatories. A combination of 4-5 observatories, plus all of our 25 spacecraft, will help us precisely determine what is happening to the earth’s surface and its climate.
- It will use technology that measures any change on the surface such as land as a result of an earthquake, or disturbance on the water or movement of ice on the planet,” Mr. Nelson said about the joint venture.
- NASA is providing the NISAR mission’s L-band synthetic aperture radar, a high-rate communication subsystem for science data, GPS receivers, a solid-state recorder and payload data subsystem.
- ISRO is providing the spacecraft bus, the S-band radar, the launch vehicle and associated launch services.
2. After Biden, more world leaders signal they may skip COP¬28
Topic: GS2 and GS3- Climate change
Context: Dubai prepared to host the COP28 climate talks asworld leaders including U.S. President Joe Biden signalled they would not be attending the negotiations that come during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war roiling the wider West Asia.
More information on the news:
- The two week meeting of international leaders aims to assess where the world stands when itcomes to limiting emissions to slow global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared with preindustrial times.
- Some have said or otherwise signalled they won’tbe attending the Conference of the Parties — where COP gets its name.
- They include the 81 year old Mr. Biden. “The President has been very much focused on the conflict between Israel and Hamas over the last month or so,” a U.S. official said on Monday.
- The White House has said it is sending a climate team, including Special Envoy ohn Kerry, climate adviser Ali Zaidi and clean energy adviser John Podesta.
- It remains unclear if Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will attend the talks. Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashar Assad won’t be attending either
3. Muslim student strength in higher education fell by 1.79 lakh in 2020¬21
Topic: GS2- Vulnerable society
Context: Enrolment in higher education among Muslim students in the age group of 1823 dropped by more than 8.5% in 202021, says a report prepared from the analysis of data from the Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) and the All India Survey of Higher Education (AISHE)
Information on the News:
- The report says that a significant trend that is observed across all States and Union Territories is that the enrolment percentage of Muslim students in Classes 11 and 12 is lower than that in the previous classes.
- The representation of Muslim students starts declining gradually from Class 6 and is the lowest in Classes 11 and 12. “While Muslims make up around 14.42% of total enrolment of 6.67 crore [students] at the upper primary level [Class 68], it slightly decreases to 12.62% at the secondary level [Class 910] and declines to 10.76% at the higher secondary level [Class 1112],” the report states.
- The States such as Bihar and Madhya Pradesh have relatively low Gross Enrolment Ratio for Muslim students, which indicates that many Muslim children in these States are still out of the education system.
- Identifying and enrolling out of school children in age appropriate classes should be a priority, the report recommends.
Need of targeted support:
- Implementing targeted support and inclusive policies can help bridge this gap and provide equal educational opportunities for all,” the report says.
- Many Muslim students come from lowincome families and struggle to afford the cost of higher educat on. “To address this issue, it is essential to provide financial assistance and support to deserving students who face financial constraints.
- Enhancing and increasing the number of scholarships, grants, and financial aid opportunities targeted explicitly at Muslim students can significantly alleviate the financial burden and help more deserving students access higher education,” the report recommends.
4. RBI’s latest move to increase risk weights for lending
Topic: GS3- Banking
Context: Seeking to rein in an observed rise in unsecured personal loans and credit cards, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) directed banks and nonbanking financial companies (NBFCs) to reserve more capital for risk weights.
What has the RBI proposed?
- The idea is to address the notion of ‘credit risk.’
- It refers to the risk entailed by a borrower being unable to meet their obligations or defaulting on commitments.
- ‘Risk weights’ are an essential tool for banks to manage this risk.
- This metric, in percentage factors, adjusts for the risk associated with a certain asset type.
- In other words, it is an indicator of the essential holding the lender should ideally have to adjust the associated risk.
- This is what the RBI has directed to be increased. The primary purpose of effective risk management by banks is to maximise their returns by maintaining credit risk exposure within acceptable parameters.
- Earlier, the RBI had raised concerns about the growth seen in consumer credit and increased dependency of NBFCs on bank borrowings.
- Now, it has directed that the risk weight for consumer credit exposure be increased by 25 percentage points to 125%, for all commercial banks and NBFCs.
Why were the changes necessary?
- While presenting the monetary policy statement in October this year, Governor Shaktikanta Das had flagged concerns about the “high growth” in “certain components of consumer credit.”
- He advised banks and NBFCs to “strengthen their internal surveillance mechanisms, address the buildup of risks, if any, and institute suitable safeguards, in their own interest.”
- Ratings agency Moody’s also put forth that higher risk weights are intended to “dampen lenders’ consumer loan growth appetite.”
- RBI figures stipulate that unsecured personal loans have increased by 23% on a yea rover year basis, as on September 22.
- Outstanding loans from credit cards increased by about 30% during the same period.
- Major concerns emerge for loans below ₹50,000 — these carry the utmost default risk. Delinquencies, defined as loans overdue by more than 90 days, in this segment, as reported by Reuters citing Trans union CIBIL data, stood at 5.4% as of June this year.
What are the chief concerns?
- The primary concerns relate to the impact on capital adequacy and the bank’s overall profitability.
- S&P’s latest report states that slower loan growth and an increased emphasis on risk management will likely support better asset quality in the Indian banking system.
- However, it adds, “The immediate effect will likely be higher interest rates for borrowers, slower loan growth for lenders, reduced capital adequacy, and some hit on profits.”
- However, the worst affected might be finance companies, as their incremental bank borrowing might surge, S&P states.
- NBFCs face a “double whammy” because of higher risk weights on their unsecured loans and on account of the bank lending mandates to NBFCs.
- Bank lending to NBFCs remained the principal source of funding for NBFCs — constituting 41.2% of the total borrowing of entities as of March end. It is expected that the increased costs would be passed onto borrowers.
For Enquiry
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