The First Forum is an initiative that focuses on covering the latest happenings in a brief format. This is in lieu of the importance of knowledge about current happenings in this fast-changing world.
In the Seventy First – Edition of The First Forum we would be covering the following topics:
1. Politics
2. Science and Technology
3. Business
4. Economics
5. Finance
(By Gunika Vij, Ashika Deb and Shitij Goyal)
Politics
Caste is key in bengal 2021
Amit Shah, in a two-day visit to West Bengal sounded the poll bugle saying that the “death knell had been rung for the Mamata Banerjee government”. His visit seemed to have a single agenda – to woo the Adivasi and scheduled caste voters. However, on the eve of his visit, Mamata Banerjee announced land rights for 25,000 refugee families and a Rs 10 crore and Rs 5 crore grant from the Matua Development Board and the Namashudra Development Board respectively. Read More
Indian candidate secures position in key committee at the UN
Indian diplomat Vidisha Maitra, was elected to the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) on 6th November at the United Nations, being India’s candidate for the only post in the committee from the Asia Pacific Group. This committee controls the financial and budgetary purse of the UN and India’s win is crucial as India will also be in the Security Council as a non-permanent member for the next two years. Read More
China opposes US’ move to remove ETIM from terrorist outfit list
China accused the US of applying ‘double standards’ following the state department’s move to remove the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) from its list of terrorist organisations because it’s “an internationally recognised terrorist organisation that seriously threatens the safety of China and the world.” According to China, US is using the terrorist organisation to promote its own interests and holding back international cooperation on counterterrorism. Read More
EU slaps sanctions on Belarus President
The EU imposed sanctions on 6th November on the President of Belarus and 14 other officials over their roles in the security crackdown launched during protests of the country’s contested August presidential election. Ever since the elections, Belarus has seen several protests and more than 15,000 people in the country have been arrested and once the results returned President Lukashenko to power with 80% of the vote they were widely seen as rigged, even by the EU. Read More
UK revises guidance on business with China
UK has issued new guidance to British companies on safely and ethically engaging with China, highlighting “national security concerns”, after calling out China for alleged human rights violations in Xinjiang. The UK-China trade and investment relationship is worth £70 billion and Britain is one of the top destinations in Europe for foreign direct investment from China. Read More
Science and Technology
FDA advisory panel declines to support a controversial Alzheimer’s treatment
The fate of a potential new Alzheimer’s drug, aducanumab, made by pharmaceutical company Biogen is still uncertain. Evidence that the drug works isn’t convincing enough for it to be approved. It targets a protein called amyloid-beta that accumulates in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s and it could slow the disease’s progression but not stop or reverse it. Read More
Scientists design magnets with outstanding properties
An international team of researchers has discovered a new way to design magnets with outstanding physical properties. In 2019, the global market for inorganic magnets was worth $19.5 billion, and is expected to reach $27.5 billion by 2025. The team has found a new chemical strategy to design magnets based coordination networks composed of an organic radical and a paramagnetic metal ion to generate a very strong magnetic interaction, and they have many desirable physical properties, Read More
1,494 Indians among top 2% scientists in the world
Twenty-two faculty members and researchers of Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati (IIT-G) and seven faculty members of Tezpur University along with faculty members from Cotton University, Gauhati University and Assam University, are among 1,494 Indian scientists who featured in a list of top two per cent of the world scientists. Read More
Global food system emissions could hinder meeting Paris Agreement’s goal.
The Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting the increase in global temperature to 1.5° or 2°C above preindustrial levels requires rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions but even if fossil fuel emissions were eliminated immediately, emissions from the global food system alone would make it impossible to limit warming to 1.5°C and difficult even to realize the 2°C target. Read More
Isro successfully launches earth observation satellite
ISRO has successfully launched the earth observation satellite, EOS-01, on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. It was launched as the primary satellite along with nine international customer satellites on board the PSLV-C49. The launch of EOS-01 was PSLV’s 51st mission (PSLV-C49). Read More


Business
New flexi-cap category for Mutual Funds
The markets regulator has introduced a ‘flexi-cap category’ for mutual funds, which will be required to invest at least 65% of the corpus in equity but will have no restrictions on investing in large-, mid- or small-cap company stocks. In September, Sebi came up with new rules for multi-cap funds which raised concerns over the possibility of existing multi-cap funds being forced to buy mid- and small-cap stocks despite these segments not having the liquidity to absorb large flows from MFs. Read More
Suggestion for NBFCs to convert into banks
Top central bank official is suggesting large non-bank lenders to convert themselves to banks or scale down their operations. Rao, deputy governor in charge of banking regulation and risk monitoring at RBI, called for a calibrated and graded regulatory framework for non-banking finance companies proportionate to their systemic significance. Systemically important NBFCs must be identified and subjected to a higher degree of regulation. Read More
Asian share markets follow Wall Street higher
Asian share markets firmed on 2nd November while bonds held big gains as investors awaited a clear result of the US election, with the possible prospect of policy gridlock seemingly warmly welcomed by Wall Street overnight. Morgan Stanley Capital International’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added0.5% to reach its highest since March 2018. Nikkei rose to 0.9% and South Korea put on 1.5%. Read More
Govt to bring PLI scheme to promote domestic agro-chemicals
The government will bring a production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for promotion of domestic manufacturing of agro-chemicals. The sector can progress adopting a multi-faceted approach by becoming globally competitive and with reforms in rules along with the “Make in India”. It has been assured that the Modi government won’t bring any laws that impact the industry and the country’s growth. Read More
Economics
President-elect Joe Biden’s tax policies could be a boon for India: Experts
US President-elect Joe Biden’s policies of taxing corporates at a higher rate than present levels could prove to be an opportunity for India which has brought down its tax rates substantially. Experts said that multinational companies and US-based companies may end up moving a large part of their profits to overseas destinations like India to prevent getting taxed at higher rates in the US. Read More
Economy is expected to bounce back from the next fiscal, says SBI’s Chairman
Addressing a virtual meeting, Dinesh Singh Khara, chairman, State Bank of India said that the Indian economy has shown resilience to come out from a downturn due to the coronavirus outbreak, is expected to bounce back from the next fiscal. The corporate sector will become “very careful about borrowings” and use their internal resources initially. He said the core sectors of the economy, such as steel and cement, have been doing well throughout the period starting from April 2020, and they are in a position to tap the export markets. Read More
Increased digital payment to better assess country’s GDP: Nirmala Sitharaman
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said wider adoption of digital payments will help improve assessment of GDP. “As we move towards digital transactions, we expect that the temptation for dealing with cash will be brought down, and if each of these transactions is brought into a monitorable network, Read More
The UK economy is heading back into recession
The Bank of England is pumping another £150 billion ($195 billion) into the UK economy after warning of a double-dip recession because of the coronavirus pandemic and an uncertain outlook because of Brexit. The UK central bank said that it would keep interest rates unchanged at a record low of 0.1% but would increase its purchases of UK government bonds to £875 billion ($1.1 trillion). Read More
Indian economy to fare better in the Covid, Goldilocks and the three bears phase: Morgan Stanley
India along with Indonesia and the Philippines are better placed than most Asian economies in the post Covid pandemic recovery stage, a Morgan Stanley research said. According to the research paper, titled Asia Economics: Read More
Finance
Not fresh fiscal stimulus, more important is to spend committed amount: Former RBI Governor Bimal Jalan
Former Reserve Bank Governor Bimal Jalan opined against a fresh fiscal stimulus to boost pandemic-hit economy saying it is more important to spend the amount already committed by the government than to increase the deficit. If the government have finished the total amounts of resources that they have already announced, then they should increase the fiscal deficit, he said. Read More
Rajasthan takes Rs 1.1 lakh crore option to meet GST compensation shortfall
Rajasthan has become the second among the dissenting states following Puducherry to take the option to borrow Rs 1.1 lakh crore to meet the goods and service tax GST compensation shortfall.
The finance ministry said in a statement that Rajasthan will get Rs 4,604 crore through special borrowing window and Read More
Centre extends Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme till the end of November
The government has extended the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) by a month till November 30 until the entire Rs 3 lakh crore made available under the scheme is sanctioned, according to a finance ministry statement. Lending institutions under the scheme have sanctioned loans amounting to Rs 2.03 lakh crore to 60.67 lakh borrowers and disbursed loans totaling Rs 1.48 lakh crore as of date, it said. Read More
E-way bills: 64.1 million e-invoices generated in October, highest since the introduction of the system
E-way bills for October clocked 64.1 million, the highest since the introduction of the system more than two years ago. About 49.5 million electronic invoices were generated by 27,400 taxpayers within its first month of launch in October, the ministry of electronics and IT said Monday citing data from NIC. The e-invoice system under goods and services tax (GST) was launched on October 1, 2020 for the businesses with aggregate turnover of more than Rs 500 crore in the financial year. Read More
RBI announces co-lending scheme for banks, NBFCs
In a bid to improve the flow of credit to the underserved sections of the economy, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Thursday issued guidelines under the co-origination model so that non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) and banks can jointly lend. The model envisages a joint lending process such that risks and rewards are shared. As per the guidelines, NBFCs need to retain a minimum of 20% share of the loans on their books. Read More
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