Current Affairs Assam – June 2018
( Covers all important Assam Current Affairs & GK topics for the month of June 2018 )
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June 7
India’s FDI Inflow declined by 9% and outflow doubled in 2017
Foreign Direct Investment inflow in India declined by 9% to $40 bn in 2017, while Foreign direct investment outflows increased more than double, to $11.3 billion in the same period, according to the World Investment Report, 2018, released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Investment (UNCTAD).
In the four years of the Modi government, foreign inflows jumped to USD 222.75 billion from USD 152 billion in the previous four-year period.
The Report also sites that the global foreign direct investment flows fell by 23 per cent in 2017, to $1.43 trillion from $1.87 trillion in 2016. Downward pressure on FDI and the slowdown in global value chains are a major concern for policymakers worldwide, and especially in developing countries.
Point2Remember – Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an investment in the form of a controlling ownership in a business in one country by an entity based in another country.
Point2Remember – UNCTAD is the principal organ of the United Nations General Assembly dealing with trade, investment, and development issues. The organization’s goals are to: “maximize the trade, investment and development opportunities of developing countries and assist them in their efforts to integrate into the world economy on an equitable basis.
FACTFILE – World’s Top 10 countries that received the most FDI in 2017
- US – $ 311 billion
- China – $ 144 billion
- Hong Kong – $ 85 billion
- Netherlands – $ 68 billion
- Ireland – $ 66 billion
- Australia – $ 60 billion
- Brazil – $ 60 billion
- Singapore – $ 58 billion
- France – $ 50 billion
- India – $ 45billion
Govt constitutes Expert group for changes in SEZ policy
The Union Government constitutes a group of eminent persons headed by Bharat Forge’s Baba Kalyani to study the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) policy and suggest measures to make it more relevant for exporters and compatible with World Trade Organisation (WTO) norms.
SEZs are export hubs and contribute significantly to the country’s total outbound shipments.
Special Economic Zone(SEZ) is an area in which business and trade laws are different from the rest of the country.
FACTFILE – Special Economic Zone(SEZ)
- The SEZ Act was passed in 2005 giving tax incentives to investors, but investments in the zone were subsequently brought under the ambit of Minimum Alternate Tax and Dividend Distribution Tax leading to a dwindling in flow of money into the SEZs.
- SEZs are located within a country’s national borders, and their aims include: increased trade, increased investment, job creation and effective administration.
- To encourage businesses to set up in the zone, financial policies are introduced. These policies typically regard investing, taxation, trading, quotas, customs and labour regulations.
- There are 223 operational SEZs in the country and the total investments made in the zones so far is ₹18,878 crore.
RBI to set up Public Credit Registry on all borrowers
The Reserve Bank of India has decided to set up a Public Credit Registry (PCR) to foster the level of access to credit and strengthen the credit culture.
The PCR will be the single point of mandatory reporting for all material events for each loan, irrespective the size or type of the borrowings. The PCR will serve as a registry of all credit contracts, duly verified by reporting institutions, for all lending in India and any lending by an Indian institution to a company incorporated in India.
YM Deosthalee-headed High Level Task Force committee has recommended for setting up of PCR.
Currently, within the RBI, CRILC is a borrower-level supervisory dataset with a threshold in aggregate exposure of ₹50 million, whereas the BSR-1 is a loan-level statistical dataset without any threshold in amount outstanding and focusses on the distribution aspects of credit disbursal. There are four privately-owned credit information companies (CICs) in the country. RBI has mandated all its regulated entity to submit credit information individually to all four CICs.
CICs offer, based on this unique access to the credit data, value added services like credit scoring and analytics to the member credit institutions and to the borrowers, for commercial purposes.
Information on borrowing from banks, NBFCs, market, ECBs, FCCBs, Masala Bonds, inter-corporate borrowing are not available in a single repository.
India records a 22% improvement in Maternal Mortality Rate since 2013
According to the latest Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin, India’s overall Maternal Mortality Ratio(MMR) is reduced by 22% during the 2014-’16 period as compared to the 2011-’13 period. As the MMR has declined from 167 deaths per one lakh live births in 2011-’13 to 130 in 2014-’16.
The latest figure of 130 is better than the MDG target of Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of 139, which was to be achieved by 2015).
FACTFILE – Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) in 2013
- Maternal mortality ratio is defined as the proportion of maternal deaths per one lakh live births.
- Kerala, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were the best performers. These hree states have already met the SDG target for MMR of 70 per 1,00,000.
- Kerala remains at the top with a maternal mortality ratio of just 46 during 2014-’16, down from 61 in 2011-’13. Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu are at second and third positions with ratios of 61 and 66.
- Amongst the states, Uttar Pradesh with 30 percent decline has topped the chart in the reduction of maternal deaths.
- The ‘Empowered Action Group’ of states (Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand) and Assam have shown drastic improvements, with numbers reducing to 188 from 246.
- Assam is the worst performer with an MMR nearly double the national average, 237.
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