1) Additional Tier-1 (AT1) bonds: These bonds are unsecured bonds that have perpetual tenors, are issued by banks and have no maturity date.
- They have a call option, which can be used by the banks to buy these bonds back from investors. These bonds are typically used by banks to bolster their core or tier-1 capital.
- These AT1 bonds are subordinate to all other debt and only senior to common equity.
- These bonds were introduced by the Basel accord after the global financial crisis to protect depositors.
2) ASMI Machine Pistol: ASMI (meaning pride/ self-respect) is India’s first indigenous 9mm machine pistol. Developed jointly by DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) and Indian Army. It weighs under 2kg and can fire at a range of 100 metres.
- The 3D printing process was used to design and prototype the pistol’s various parts, including its trigger components.
- Machine pistol: It is a relatively small, self-loading automatic handgun with a high rate of fire and can fire in intermittent or sustained bursts.
3) Egypt: Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi is India’s Chief Guest for Republic Day 2023 celebrations. it is a transcontinental country situated in northeastern Africa and the Sinai Peninsula in Western Asia (Middle East). Capital: Cairo
- The country borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea to the east.
- The famous River Nile is the only river that flows in Egypt throughout the year. Around 98% of the country’s population resides in the Nile River Valley.
- Exercise Cyclone-I: It is the first ever joint exercise between the special forces of the Indian Army and the Egyptian Army.
4) Kanha Tiger Reserve: It stretches over an area of 940 square km in the two districts – Mandla and Balaghat – of Madhya Pradesh. It is the largest National Park in Central India.
- The State animal of Madhya Pradesh – Hard Ground Barasingha is found exclusively in Kanha Tiger Reserve. It is best known for its evergreen Sal forests (Shorea Robusta).
- It is the first tiger reserve in India to officially introduce a mascot, “Bhoorsingh the Barasingha”.
5) Hakku Patra: The word ‘Hakku’ means “the right”, and ‘Patra’ means a “paper” or “document”.
- It is a legal document that states an individual’s rightful inheritance of a property.
- It is issued to the nation’s underprivileged section, including scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, urban slum dwellers, handicapped, and other disadvantaged populations.
- In most cases, the land on which the Hakku Patra is issued is government-owned with a specific set of conditions attached.
- It is a part of the Ambedkar Rural Housing Scheme of Karnataka.
- Under this, the government offers free registration of Hakku Patra land in the beneficiary’s name. Any house built on the Hakku Patra land should be used as the beneficiary’s house and not for rental purposes.
