Table of Contents
Transmission troubles
• Poor monetary transmission
• MCLR is the new benchmark lending rate at which banks
will now lend to new borrowers.
• Till 31 March 2016, banks used the base rate as the
benchmark rate to lend.
• MCLR is built on four components—marginal cost of
funds, negative carry on account of cash reserve ratio
(CRR), operating costs and tenor premium.
• RBI has asked banks to set at least five MCLR rates—
overnight, one month, three month, six month and one
year.
• MCLR-linked loans will be reset for a maximum of one year.
• So, you will have a new interest rate on your home loan at a predecided time and for a maximum period of one year.
• For instance, if you take a Rs.30-lakh loan on 1 April this year, one year MCLR is at 9.20% and spread on it is 25 bps, your home loan will be 9.45%. You will pay instalments at this rate for the next one year.
• If on 1 April 2017, one-year MCLR gets revised to 9.15%, your home loan interest rate will get reset at 9.40% (MCLR of 9.15% plus spread of 25 bps). Accordingly, your installment or loan tenor may change.
• The MCLR-linked home loan rate is currently marginally lower than a base rate-linked loan.
Why the MCLR reform?
• At present, the banks are slightly slow to change their interest rate in accordance with repo rate change by the RBI.
• Commercial banks are significantly depending upon the RBI’s LAF repo to get short term funds. But they are reluctant to change their individual lending rates and deposit rates with periodic changes in repo rate.
• It is mandatory for banks to consider the repo rate while calculating their MCLR.
• One can understand the banks’ reluctance to switch to the lower MCLR-based rates, given the multiple pressures they face, including record levels of non-performing assets and losses, and significant treasury losses.
Neither new nor undesirable
• Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT): lateral entry in government service.
• Since the problem that the new policy seeks to fix remains vague, we cannot hope for whatever improvements promised.
• The lateral entry decision is based on the assumption that since our civil servants, especially those of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), are generalists and hence ill-suited to deal with policy implications of new technologies and new modes of thinking, the country is
in dire need of domain experts.
Counter view
• The effectiveness of such hires is greatly compromised by the fact that all decision making power remains concentrated in the regular bureaucracy.
• An added advantage of the shorter term is that over tie, it will create a pool of talented individuals outside the government with knowledge of inner workings.
• This pools will then be available for yet higher-level appointments as well as assistance on specific short-term tasks.
Beating plastic pollution
• We celebrated ‘World Environment Day’ (June 5) with a critical theme: beat plastic pollution.
• India was the global host of this year’s event, and also one of the victims of plastic pollution.
• The theme urges governments, industries, communities and individuals to come together and explore sustainable alternatives.
• It also urges this target group to reduce the production and excessive use of single-use plastics, which are polluting our environment and threatening human health.
• Plastic was invented in New York in 1907 by Leo Baekeland.
• Further, many chemists, including Nobel laureate Hermann Staudinger (father of polymer chemistry) and Herman Mark (father of polymer physics), have contributed to the materials science of plastics.
• However, these scientists could not have anticipated such an exponential growth of plastic production.
• Plastic has become an indispensable material in modern society.
• Worldwide, one million plastic bags and one million plastic bottles are used every minute.
• About 50% of our plastic use is single use (disposable) and it constitutes 10% of the total waste generated.
• More than 9.1 billion tons of plastic are said to have been “manufactured since the material was initially mass-produced in the 1950s”.
• In 2015, scientists said that “of the nearly 7 billion tons of plastic waste generated, only 9% was recycled, 12% incinerated, and 79% accumulated in landfills or the environment”.
• In India, which accounts for almost 18% of the world population in 2.4% of the global land area, the accumulation of plastic waste is huge.
• An estimate in 2015 revealed that 60 cities across the country generated over 15,000 tonnes of plastic waste every day.
• Even if plastic is a convenient alternative, it is a difficult substance for nature to digest.
• Each year, 13 million tonnes of plastic end up in the oceans. A study revealed that 20 rivers (mostly from Asia) carry two-thirds of plastic waste to the ocean; the Ganga’s contribution to this is one of the highest.
• Researchers exploring the Arctic have found very high levels of micro plastics trapped in the ice.
• Last year, a plastic spoon was found in the remains of a whale shark off Rameswaram.
• Economic impact of plastic pollution on marine ecosystems: $13 billion per year.
• Drinking water samples analysed from 14 countries, including India, revealed that 83% have micro-plastics concentrations.
• According to a United Nations Environment Programme report, the overall annual natural capital cost of plastic use in the consumer goods sector is $75 billion.
• As most plastic items pass through our hands, public care, with
behavioural change, is necessary.
• Eco-friendly substitutes (cloth/paper/jute bags, leaves/areca leaf plates, paper straws) should be developed.
• For this, scientific and financial support (soft loans and subsidies) is required.
• Charges for plastic bag use and deposit-refund for plastic bottles may be effective options.
• The Swachh Bharat Mission should emerge as a platform for plastic waste management.
The seeds of sustainability
• Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu announced that
the State would fully embrace Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF)
• A chemical-free method that would cover all farmers by 2024.
• Earlier in the year, he had revealed these plans at the meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Welfare of farmers
Reduce the cost of farm inputs
Cut toxins in food
Improve soils
• The Government of India provides funding through the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana.
• Additional resources have been made available through various philanthropic organisations.
• Subhash Palekar developed the ZBNF after his own efforts at chemical farming failed.
• In early 2016, Sikkim was declared India’s first fully organic State.
• But organic agriculture often involves addition of large amounts of manure, vermicompost and other materials that are required in bulk and need to be purchased.
• These turn out to be expensive for most small farm holders.
• Resilient food systems are the need of the day given the variability of the monsoons due to global warming and declining groundwater in large parts of India.
Important News
• Vohra takes charge in J&K, reviews security situation
• CEA resigns, cites personal reasons
• U.S. quits UN human rights body
• In Japan, Zen and the art of yoga
• China offers to boost ties between India and Pakistan
• Dineshwar Sharma will continue his mission
• India contests overstayers’ figures
• Oli’s China visit to focus on connectivity
• Rising oil prices to hit private consumption, says Urjit Patel
• High oil prices hurting fiscal balance, Pradhan tells OPEC
1. From the below given items identify hormone/s that is/are produced by the human body?
1. Insulin
2. Cytokinin
3. Thyroxine
Choose the correct option
A. Only 1
B. Only 2 and 3
C. Only 1 and 3
D. All of above
2. Which parts of circulatory system that carry oxygenated blood?
1. Pulmonary artery
2. Left Ventricle
3. Pulmonary Vein
• Choose the correct option
A. Only 1
B. Only 2 and 3
C. Only 1 and 3
D. All of above
Answers-
1. Suggest ways through which we can change people’s behaviour
in terms of plastic usage.
2. Consider the following statements about the passive immunity of
human body to fight the disease
1. Generation of passive immunity takes place when antibodies are
obtained from outside of the body
2. Full effective response of passive immunity is slow and takes time to
show its effects.
Choose the correct option
A. Only 1
B. Only 2
C. Both 1 and 2
D. Neither 1 nor 2
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