1) India-UK Infrastructure Finance Bridge: It is a collaboration between the Niti Aayog and the City of London Corporation.
- Objective: Unlocking infrastructure and leveraging the City of London’s expertise in structuring and phasing major infrastructure projects.
- Significance: Secure long-term investment for the vital infrastructure sector in India.
- Fortify the foundation for economic growth, job creation, and shared prosperity in both UK and India.
- Committed to sustainable infrastructure development, prioritizing environmentally friendly projects that are aligned with SDGs
2) Gresham’s law: It states that, in a fixed exchange rate system, “bad money drives out good”.
- It comes into play when exchange rate between two currencies is fixed by government at a certain ratio that is different from market exchange rate.
- It causes undervalued currency to go out of circulation.
- Overvalued currency remains in circulation but it does not find enough buyers.
- It applies not just to paper currencies but also to commodity currencies and other goods.
- Law, named after English financier Thomas Gresham, came into play recently during Sri Lanka crisis.
3) Overnight index swap (OIS): Indian OIS rates rose to their highest levels in last 10 months.
- An OIS is an interest rate derivative contract in which two entities agree to swap/exchange a fixed interest rate payment (OIS rate) for a floating interest rate payment.
- OIS is also considered a measure of monetary policy expectation.
- Floating rate is usually overnight interbank rate {reference rate for Indian OIS contracts is Mumbai Interbank Outright Rate (MIBOR)}.
- Benefits of OIS: hedging interest rate risks, reduction of credit risk, effective management of debt portfolios by financial institutions etc.
4) Earthquake in Morocco: Earthquake is caused by to release of energy within the earth’s lithosphere generating waves.
- Epicentre: located in the Atlas Mountains.
- Reasons for the strongest earthquake in this region
- Northward convergence of the African plate with respect to the Eurasian plate along a complex plate boundary.
- It was attributed to oblique-reverse faulting at shallow depth within the Moroccan High Atlas Mountain range.
- This type of faulting is common in areas of compression along the convergent plate boundaries.
