1) Hindu Rate of Growth: Former Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan said that India was “dangerously close” to the ‘Hindu rate of growth’ in view of the subdued private sector investment, high interest rates and slowing global growth.
- The ‘Hindu rate of growth’ is a term describing low Indian economic growth rates from the 1950s to the 1980s, which averaged around 4%. It was coined by an Indian economist Raj Krishna.
2) Megha-Tropiques-1 satellite: The MT1 is a joint Indo-French satellite launched in 2011 for tropical weather and climate studies which was providing data services, supporting regional and global climate models till 2021.
- ISRO will be undertaking a challenging experiment of a controlled re-entry of the decommissioned MT1
- The ISRO said that the United Nations/Inter-Agency Space Debris Coordination Committee space debris mitigation guidelines recommended deorbiting a Low Earth Orbit object at its end-of-life, preferably through controlled re-entry to a safe impact zone, or by bringing it to an orbit where the orbital lifetime was less than 25 years.
3) Whiskey fungus: The fungus, called Baudoinia compniacensis, feeds on alcohol vapor, the substance whiskey makers call the “angel’s share” of distilled spirits that evaporates during maturation.
- The fungus tends to spread to nearby surfaces, blanketing almost everything that comes in its way.
- Researchers haven’t found any instances of health risks from short or long-term exposure to the whiskey fungus but it can destroy trees and damage properties
4) Qualified Stock Brokers: According to SEBI, QSBs as entities who, because of their size and scale of operations, can likely impact investors and the securities market, as well as governance and service standards. These stock brokers cater to the needs of a large number of investors.
- The failure of such stock brokers has the potential to cause disruption in the services they provide to large numbers of investors, causing widespread impact in the securities market.
- A stock broker will be designated as QSB on the basis of four parameters — number of active clients, total available assets of clients, trading volumes and end-of-day margin obligations.
- All stock brokers with a total score greater than or equal to five on these four parameters are identified as QSBs.
- The scores are to be calculated on an annual basis (financial year) and the revised list of QSBs will be released jointly by stock exchanges, in consultation with Sebi.
- QSBs will have to red flag any unusual client behaviour to stock exchanges and take necessary measures to prevent fraudulent activity in the market.
5) Think 20: A two-day Think-20 summit under the auspices of the G20 will bring together prominent individuals from around the world to debate a range of issues, including “Global Governance with LiFE, Values, and Wellbeing” in Bhopal.
- A “Bhopal Declaration” will cap off the occasion.
