Current Affair 1:

What is the crypto awareness campaign?

 

News:

The Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) will launch an outreach programme soon to create awareness of cryptocurrencies and online gaming. The need for the outreach is based on the observation that both crypto-assets and online gaming (that extends to gambling and betting) are still being promoted in a risky manner despite the recent turmoil in the sector.

What is the Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF)?

The Investor Education and Protection Fund (IEPF) is managed by the IEPF Authority, which was set up in 2016 under the provisions of Section 125 of the Companies Act, 2013. The Authority is entrusted with the responsibility of administration of the IEPF, which, besides promoting awareness among investors, makes refunds of shares, unclaimed dividends, matured deposits and debentures and so on to rightful claimants.

Why is there a concern about cryptocurrency?

The crypto dilemma stems from concerns about the unregulated currency having a destabilising effect on the monetary and fiscal stability of a country.

Further, crypto exchanges in India are being investigated for their alleged involvement in unlawful practices such as drug trafficking, money laundering, violating foreign exchange legislation and evasion of GST. As on December 14, proceeds of crime amounting to ₹907.48 crore have been attached/seized, three persons have been arrested and four prosecution complaints have been filed before the Special Court, Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Will an outreach programme help?

Vipul Kharbanda, non-resident fellow at the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), while supporting the move, points to two concerns: first, apart from the outreach programme, there has to be a regulatory mechanism for the crypto sector. Second, he says the messaging has to be right. “If the government takes a heavy-handed approach and starts saying things like virtual currency is not legal in India, that will not be entirely true.

Current Affair 2:

A new ranking system of cities based on their financial performance

 

News:

The ‘City Finance Rankings, 2022’ aim to evaluate, recognize and reward India’s cities (Urban Local Bodies or ULBs) on the basis of the quality of their current financial health and improvement over time in financial performance.

The rankings aim to motivate city/state officials and decision makers, to implement municipal finance reforms. The participating ULBs will be evaluated on 15 indicators across three key municipal finance assessment parameters, namely: (i) Resource Mobilization, (ii) Expenditure Performance and (iii) Fiscal Governance.

City Finance Rankings are an effort to analyse and help the ULBs in identifying areas in their financial performance where they can make further improvements, to be able to deliver quality infrastructure and services to its citizens.

The rankings will serve as a constant motivation for city/state officials to continue to implement municipal finance reforms.

At a state- and national-level, the rankings will highlight the outcomes achieved by municipalities and provide critical insights to key policy makers into the state of finances of urban local bodies. ULBs can benefit immensely by participating in the fiscal rankings as they will be able to self-evaluate their own performance vis-à-vis other cities, which can help them in self-improvement in future.

All 4500+ cities / urban local bodies (ULBs) across all states/UTs would be encouraged to participate in the City Finance Rankings 2022.

Current Affair 3:

National Archives of India

 

News:

The Director-General of National Achieves of India has recently stated that the agency does not have records of 1962, 1965, and 1971 wars or even the Green Revolution.

About:

The National Archives of India is the custodian of the records of enduring value of the Government of India.

Established on 11 March, 1891 at Calcutta (Kolkata) as the Imperial Record Department, it is the biggest archival repository in South Asia.

It has a vast corpus of records viz., public records, private papers, oriental records, cartographic records and microfilms, which constitute an invaluable source of information for scholars-administrators and users of archives.

The Director General of Archives, heading the Department has been given the mandate for the implementation of the Public Records Act, 1993 and the rules made there under, the Public Records Rules, 1997 for the management, administration and preservation of public records in the Ministries, Departments, Public Sector undertakings etc. of the Central Government.

Current Affair 4:

National Geospatial Policy, 2022

 

News:

The National Geospatial Policy, 2022 (the Policy) is a citizen-centric policy that seeks to strengthen the Geospatial sector to support national development, economic prosperity and a thriving information economy.

It seeks to develop Geospatial infrastructures, Geospatial skill and knowledge, standards, Geospatial businesses, promote innovation and strengthen the national and sub-national arrangements for generation and management of Geospatial information

 

DST shall continue to be the nodal Department of the Government and GDPDC shall make suitable recommendations to DST in the discharge of its functions relating to the Geospatial regime. DST shall provide secretarial assistance to GDPDC.

 

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