UPSCMainsZone

2022-02-08 21:37:01 What is a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) ?

CBDC is a legal tender issued by a central bank in a digital form.

It is similar to a fiat currency issued in paper and is interchangeable with any other fiat currency

What is the need for CBDC?

the goal is to provide users with convenience and security of digital as well as the regulated, reserve-backed circulation of the traditional banking system.

What does this change for citizens?

There are several models proposed by technology experts and evangelists on how the Digital Rupee could be transacted but a formal announcement by the Reserve Bank of India will likely detail how the Digital Rupee will be transacted by citizens.

One chief difference will be that a Digital Rupee transaction will be instantaneous as opposed to the current digital payment experience.

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2022-02-08 21:37:01 Open Market Operations(OMO)

It is the sale and purchase of government securities and treasury bills by RBI or the central bank of the country.

Aim: To adjust the rupee liquidity conditions in the market on a durable basis.

The central bank carries out the OMO through commercial banks and does not directly deal with the public.

When the RBI feels that there is excess liquidity in the market, it resorts to sale of securities thereby sucking out the rupee liquidity.

Similarly, when the liquidity conditions are tight, RBI may buy securities from the market thereby releasing liquidity into the market.

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2022-02-08 21:37:01 Bad Bank

News: RBI Governor has agreed to look at a proposal for creating a Bad Bank.

Key points:
1. Function as a bank but has bad assets to start with.

2. It is an Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC) or an Asset Management Company (AMC).

3. It is not involved in lending and taking deposits.

4. It helps commercial banks clean up their balance sheets and resolve bad loans.

5. US-based Mellon Bank created the first bad bank in 1988.

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2022-02-08 21:37:01 Digital Payments Index(DPI)

● Released by: Reserve Bank of India(RBI)

● Purpose: To capture the extent of digitisation of payments across the country.

● Parameters: The index comprises five broad parameters with varying weights to measure the penetration of digital payments:
Payment enablers (25%),
Payment infrastructure—demand-side factors (10%), Payment infrastructure—supply-side factors (15%),
Payment performance (45%)
Consumer centricity (5%).

● When will it be published? The index shall be published on RBI’s website on a semi-annual basis from March 2021 onwards with a lag of 4 months.

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2022-02-08 21:37:01 New Food Processing Policy

Why in News: The Food Processing Sector has emerged as an important segment of the Indian economy and it constitutes as much as 9.9 percent and 11.4 percent share of GVA in Manufacturing and Agriculture sector respectively in 2019-20 at 2011-12 prices.

Key challenges facing the sector are:

Supply chain infrastructure gaps
Institutional gaps
Relatively low level of processing
Technological gaps
Lack of seamless Linkage between Agri-Production and Processing
Credit availability gaps

The draft National Food Processing Policy lays down strategy for unhindered growth of the sector by addressing these challenges through

Promotion of clusters
Convergence of services provided by different Ministries / Departments
Focused interventions for improving competitiveness
Promotion of India’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
Strengthening unorganized food processing units
Increased access to institutional credit at affordable cost

Some of the key objectives of the draft policy are:

Attaining a higher growth trajectory through significant increase in investment for strengthening supply chain infrastructure and expansion of processing capacity particularly in perishables;
Improving Competitiveness through technology upgradation, Research & Development, Branding and strengthening India’s USP in food sector;
Attaining long term sustainability in growth of the sector through efficient use of water, energy, adoption eco-friendly technology in processing, storage, packaging and use of waste from FPI industry.

#sciencetechnology
#mains #prelims

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2022-02-08 21:37:01 Balance of Payments (BoP)

BoP of a country summarizes all transactions that a country’s individuals,
companies and government bodies complete with individuals, companies and government bodies
outside the country. These transactions consist of import and exports of goods, services and capital as
well as transfer payments such as foreign aid and remittances.

The BOP is composed of three subaccounts :

The current account consists of revenue obtained through merchandise trade, services, income
receipts, and one-way transfers.

The capital account includes transfers of financial assets such as debt payments and transfers of
titles to assets.

The financial account records trade in stocks, bonds, commodities, and real estate.

Factors that give rise to adverse BoP :

1) Economic Factors

Higher levels of imports than exports resulting in a deficit in the BOP account.

Inflation in the domestic economy => foreign goods become relatively cheaper as
compared to domestic goods, which increases imports.

Cyclical fluctuations, like recession or depression.

Fall in demand for country’s goods in the foreign markets leads to fall in exports, thereby adversely
affecting the BoP.

Import of Services from other countries.

2) Political Factors

Political instability may lead to large capital outflows and reduce the inflow of foreign funds.

3) Social Factors

An unfavourable change for the domestic goods leads to a deficit in the BoP.

High population growth in poor countries adversely affects their BOP because it increases the needs
of the countries for imports and decreases their capacity to export.

Remedial measures to correct imbalance in BoP are :

The foreign earning should be increased by export led growth. Exports should be encouraged by
taking measures that make them competitive, including subsidies, duty drawbacks, logistics
improvements, etc.

Control on unnecessary imports like gold in times when CAD comes under severe pressure.

Inflation discourages exports and encourages imports. Therefore, inflation should be kept in check.

Taking steps to check currency manipulation and arrest the volatility in currency exchange rate,
which will encourage foreign investment and thus, capital flows into the country.

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2022-02-08 21:37:01 Sex Determination

Henking (1891) could trace a specific nuclear structure all through spermatogenesis in a few insects, and it was also observed by him that 50 per cent of the sperm received this structure after spermatogenesis, whereas the other 50 per cent sperm did not receive it.

Henking gave a name to this structure as the X body but he could not explain its significance.

Further investigations by other scientists led to the conclusion that the ‘X body’ of Henking was in fact a chromosome and that is why it was given the name X-chromosome.

It was also observed that in a large number of insects the mechanism of sex determination is of the XO type, i.e., all eggs bear an additional X-chromosome besides the other chromosomes (autosomes). On the other hand, some of the sperms bear the X-chromosome whereas some do not.

Eggs fertilized by sperm having an X-chromosome become females and, those fertilized by sperms that do not have an X-chromosome become males.

Due to the involvement of the X-chromosome in the determination of sex, it was designated to be the sex chromosome, and the rest of the chromosomes were named as autosomes.

Grasshopper is an example of XO type of sex determination in which the males have only one X-chromosome besides the autosomes, whereas females have a pair of X-chromosomes.

These observations led to the investigation of a number of species to understand the mechanism of sex determination.

In a number of other insects and mammals including man, XY type of sex determination is seen where both male and female have same number of chromosomes https://t.me/UPSCMainsZone ओपन / कमेंट

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