TRIUMPH IAS ACADEMY MUMBAI

Green GDP is a term used generally for expressing GDP after adjusting for environmental damage.   The System of National Accounts (SNA) is an accounting framework for measuring the economic activities of production, consumption and accumulation of wealth in an economy during a period of time. When information on economy's use of the natural environment is integrated into the system of national accounts, it becomes green national accounts or environmental accounting. The process of environmental accounting involves three steps viz. Physical accounting; Monetary valuation; and integration with national Income/wealth Accounts . Physical accounting determines the state of the resources, types, and extent (qualitative and quantitative) in spatial and temporal terms. Monetary valuation is done to determine its tangible and intangible components. Thereafter, the net change in natural resources in monetary terms is integrated into the Gross Domestic Product in order to reach the v...

         The Finance Minister in the Budget Speech 2011-12, informed that a model legislation for the Central and State GST is being drafted. He also elaborated about the steps taken by the government to introduce GST like; establishment of a strong IT infrastructure, significant progress on the GST Network (GSTN). The National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) has been selected as technology partner for incubating the National Information Utility that will establish and operate the IT backbone for GST. By June 2011, NSDL will set up a Pilot portal in collaboration with eleven States prior to its roll out across the country. The other ground work done for implementation of GST is the unification of rate structure in goods and services by keeping the standard rate of Central excise duty and services tax at 10%. The Constitution of India does not vest power on the centre and states t...

Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) became an Act in 2003. The objective of the Act is to ensure inter-generational equity in fiscal management, long run macroeconomic stability, better coordination between fiscal and monetary policy, and transparency in fiscal operation of the Government. FRBM Act provides a legal institutional framework for fiscal consolidation. It is now mandatory for the Central government to take measures to reduce fiscal deficit, to eliminate revenue deficit and to generate revenue surplus in the subsequent years. The Act binds not only the present government but also the future Government to adhere to the path of fiscal consolidation. The Government can move away from the path of fiscal consolidation only in case of natural calamity, national security and other exceptional grounds which Central Government may specify. Further, the Act prohibits borrowing by the government from the Reserve Bank of India, thereby, making monetary polic...

Liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) is a monetary policy tool which allows banks to borrow money through repurchase agreements. LAF is used to aid banks in adjusting the day to day mismatches in liquidity.LAF consists of repo and reverse repo operations. Repo or repurchase option is a collaterised lending i.e. banks borrow money from Reserve bank of India to meet short term needs by selling securities to RBI with an agreement to repurchase the same at predetermined rate and date. The rate charged by RBI for this transaction is called the repo rate. Repo operations therefore inject liquidity into the system. Reverse repo operation is when RBI borrows money from banks by lending securities. The interest rate paid by RBI is in this case is called the reverse repo rate. Reverse repo operation therefore absorbs the liquidity in the system. The collateral used for repo and reverse repo operations comprise of Government of India securities. Oil bonds have been also suggested to b...

Indian Railways Now Seeks Suggestions from Public for Increasing its Revenue and Related Subjects : Ministry of Railway - January 20, 2015. Click here Financial Inclusion From Arthapedia Jump to: navigation , search Access to safe, easy and affordable credit and other financial services by the poor and vulnerable groups, disadvantaged areas and lagging sectors is recognized as a pre-condition for accelerating growth and reducing income disparities and poverty. In view of this, Financial Inclusion has been identified as a key dimension of the overall strategy of “Towards Faster and More Inclusive Growth” envisaged in the eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-12). Defining financial inclusion is considered crucial from the viewpoint of developing a conceptual framework and identifying the underlying factors that lead to low level of access to the financial system. Review of literature...

ENVIS is a web portal which provides information on environment and related subject areas to researchers, academicians, policy planners, environmentalists, scientists, engineers and the general public. It is a decentralized network of databases in operation since 1982-83 (Sixth Plan) and is run by the Ministry of Environment and Forests . ENVIS network, as on April 2014, consists of 68 Centres housed in reputed institutions with expertise in specific subject areas as well as in various State Governments/UTs Departments. These ENVIS Centres serve as information collection, collation, storage, retrieval and dissemination points on specific subject areas, and for the State/ UT as a whole, on 17 environmental modules. The output of ENVIS is presented with the help of geographic information system (GIS) in an user friendly manner through the India State-level Basic Environmental Information Database (ISBEID) . This provides for charting and tabular presentation of data. Information is d...

The base rate, introduced with effect from 1st July 2011 by the Reserve Bank of India, is the new benchmark rate for lending operations of banks. It is a tool which will help in bringing more transparency in lending operations of banks. Base rate is defined as the minimum interest rate of a bank below which it is not viable to lend.It replaces the benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) ,the interest rate which commercial banks charged their most credit worthy customer. A working group was constituted under the chairmanship of Shri Deepak Mohanty to review the benchmark prime lending rate. It was observed that the benchmark prime lending rate, which was introduced in 2003, had failed in its objective. The banks were lending below BPLR rates due to competitive pressures. Hence a need was felt for transition to a more transparent and effective interest rate mechanism.

Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) is a new scheme announced by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its Monetary Policy (2011-12) and refers to the penal rate at which banks can borrow money from the central bank over and above what is available to them through the LAF window . MSF, being a penal rate, is always fixed above the repo rate. The MSF would be the last resort for banks once they exhaust all borrowing options including the liquidity adjustment facility by pledging through government securities, which has lower rate of interest in comparison with the MSF. The MSF would be a penal rate for banks and the banks can borrow funds by pledging government securities within the limits of the statutory liquidity ratio. The scheme has been introduced by RBI with the main aim of reducing volatility in the overnight lending rates in the inter-bank market and to enable smooth monetary transmission in the financial system.

Eco-mark is a voluntary labelling scheme for easily identifying environment friendly products . The Eco-mark scheme defines as an environmentally friendly product, any product which is made, used or disposed of in a way that significantly reduces the harm it would otherwise cause the environment. The definition factors in all aspects of the supply chain, taking a cradle-to-grave approach, which includes raw material extraction, manufacturing and disposal. What sets eco-mark apart from other labels is that not only does the product have to meet strict environmental requirements, but it also has to meet strict quality requirements. The scheme is one of India’s earliest efforts in environmental standards, launched in 1991, even before the 1992 Rio Summit in which India participated. The scheme was launched by the Ministry of Environment and Forests , and is administered by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) , which also administers the Indian Standards Institute (ISI) mark quality l...

Agricultural Marketing Information Network (AGMARKNET) was launched in March 2000 by the Union Ministry of Agriculture. The Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI), under the Ministry, links around 7,000 agricultural wholesale markets in India with the State Agricultural Marketing Boards and Directorates for effective information exchange. This e-governance portal AGMARKNET, implemented by National Informatics Centre (NIC), facilitates generation and transmission of prices, commodity arrival information from agricultural produce markets, and web-based dissemination to producers, consumers, traders, and policy makers transparently and quickly. The AGMARKNET website ( http://www.agmarknet.nic.in ) is a G2C e-governance portal that caters to the needs of various stakeholders such as farmers, industry, policy makers and academic institutions by providing agricultural marketing related information from a single window. The portal has helped to reach farmers who do not have sufficie...

Madan Mohan Malaviya (1861–1946) was an Indian educationist and politician notable for his role in the Indian independence movement and as the four time president of Indian National Congress. He was respectfully addressed as Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya and also addressed as 'Mahamana' a title given by Mahatma Gandhi. Malaviya is most remembered as the founder of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) at Varanasi in 1916, which was created under the B.H.U. Act, 1915. The largest residential university in Asia and one of the largest in the world, having over 35,000 students across arts, sciences, engineering, medical, agriculture, performing arts, law and technology. Malaviya was Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University from 1919–1938 Malaviya was the President of the Indian National Congress on four occasions (1909 & 1913,1919,1932) he left congress in 1934 and also one of the initial leaders of the Hindu Mahasabha . Malviya was one of the founders of S...

The second meetings of the JWGs on Sub-Regional Cooperation between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) on Water Resources Management and Power/Hydropower and on Connectivity and Transit were held in New Delhi on 30-31 January 2015 in a friendly and cordial atmosphere. The JWG on Water Resources Management and Power/Hydropower reviewed the existing cooperation in this sector. It discussed the scope for power trade and inter-grid connectivity between the four countries as well as potential for closer cooperation in future power projects. It was agreed that joint efforts would be made to explore harnessing of water resources including hydropower and power from other sources available in the sub-region. It was also agreed to exchange lists of potential future hydropower/power projects to be undertaken jointly involving at least three countries on equitable basis. Exchange of experiences and best practices in other areas of power sector among the four countries was also discusse...

The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) - was promoted by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) as a centre of excellence for research and training in genetic engineering and biotechnology for the benefit of developing countries. The Centre, currently under the direction of Mauro Giacca, has three Components: Trieste, Italy , New Delhi, India and Cape Town, South Africa and comprises a network of 40 Affiliated Centres (national laboratories located in developing countries). Created and developed as a special UNIDO programme under the direction of Arturo Falaschi , on February 3 1994 the ICGEB acquired the status of Autonomous International Organisation, although it remains within the United Nations system. As of 2014, the ICGEB Statute has been signed by 45 states, most of these developing countries, and 63 states are full members of the Centre, having ratified or acceded to the Statute.