What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• What is Government Security?
• Who can Buy G-Secs?
• How are G-Secs Issued?
• Repurchase/Buyback of G-secs
• Why Do Banks Invest in Government Securities?
• About Open Market Operations (OMOs) by RBI
• News Summary

Why in News?

• Recently, the Reserve Bank of India announced its decision to consider the Open Market Operation (OMO) sale of government securities to manage liquidity in the system.

What is Government Security?

• A Government Security (G-Sec) is a tradeable instrument issued by the Central Government or the State Governments.
• It acknowledges the Government’s debt obligation. Such securities are short term (usually called treasury bills, with original maturities of less than one year) or long term (usually called Government bonds or dated securities with original maturity of one year or more).
• In India, the Central Government issues both, treasury bills and bonds or dated securities while the State Governments issue only bonds or dated securities, which are called the State Development Loans (SDLs).
  • Treasury bills or T-bills are short term debt instruments issued by the Government of India and are presently issued in three tenors, namely, 91-day, 182-day and 364-day.
  • Treasury bills are zero coupon securities and pay no interest.
  • Instead, they are issued at a discount and redeemed at the face value at maturity.
• G-Secs carry practically no risk of default and, hence, are called risk-free gilt-edged instruments.

Who can Buy G-Secs?

• Government securities are available for purchase by various entities, including banks, financial institutions, primary dealers, corporate entities, individuals, and foreign investors.
• These securities can be bought through auctions conducted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or in the secondary market through recognized stock exchanges or the NDS-OM platform.

How are G-Secs Issued?

• G-Secs are issued through auctions conducted by the RBI. Auctions are conducted on the electronic platform called the E-Kuber, the Core Banking Solution (CBS) platform of RBI.
• The RBI, in consultation with the Government of India, issues an indicative half-yearly auction calendar which contains information about the amount of borrowing, the range of the tenor of securities and the period during which auctions will be held.
• The Reserve Bank conducts auctions usually every Wednesday to issue T-bills of 91-day, 182-day and 364-day tenors.
• Settlement for the T-bills auctioned is made on T+1 day i.e. on the working day following the trade day.
• Like T-bills, Cash Management Bills (CMBs) are also issued at a discount and redeemed at face value on maturity.
• The tenor, notified amount and date of issue of the CMBs depend upon the temporary cash requirement of the Government. The tenors of CMBs is generally less than 91 days.

Repurchase/Buyback of G-secs

• Repurchase (buyback) of G-Secs is a process whereby the central government and state governments buy back their existing securities, by redeeming them prematurely, from the holders.
• The objectives of buyback can be reduction of cost (by buying back high coupon securities), reduction in the number of outstanding securities and improving liquidity in the G-Secs market (by buying back illiquid securities) and infusion of liquidity in the system.

Why Do Banks Invest in Government Securities?

• Banks invest in government securities for various reasons.
• These securities offer banks a safe, liquid investment option to park their surplus funds.
• Government securities also serve as a means for banks to meet their statutory liquidity ratio (SLR) requirements, which mandate a certain portion of their deposits to be invested in government-approved securities.

About Open Market Operations (OMOs) by RBI

• OMOs are conducted by the RBI by way of sale and purchase of G-Secs (government securities) to and from the market with an objective to adjust the rupee liquidity conditions in the market on a durable basis.
• When the Reserve Bank feels that there is excess liquidity in the market, it resorts to sale of securities thereby sucking out the rupee liquidity.
• Similarly, when the liquidity conditions are tight, RBI may buy securities from the market, thereby releasing liquidity into the market.

News Summary

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said the central bank will consider open market operations (OMO) sales to manage liquidity.
• Further, he added that the timing and quantum of such operation will depend upon evolving liquidity conditions.
• Currently, the liquidity in the banking system is estimated to be in deficit of around Rs 34,000 crore.
• In response to the RBI Governor’s announcement, the yield on the benchmark 10-year government bonds increased to 7.34 per cent as the market anticipates an OMO shortly which is expected to tighten liquidity in the system.

Q1) What do you mean by Repo Rate? 

Repo Rate is the rate at which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) lends money to commercial banks or financial institutions in India against government securities. The current Repo Rate in 2023 is 6.50%. If the RBI lowers the Repo Rate, it increases the money supply in the market, which can help the economy grow.
 

Q2) What is Bank Rate?

A bank rate is the interest rate at which a nation's central bank lends money to domestic banks, often in the form of very short-term loans.

Source: 

• Why the RBI’s Open Market Operation plan caught the market by surprise
• ToI   
   

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• Key Takeaways from the India’s Performance at the 19th Asian Games
• The Reason for India's Overall Performance Improvement
• An Illustrative Case is Archery
• Similar Stories in other Sports Too

Why in News?

• India finished with a record haul of 107 medals at the Hangzhou (China) Asian Games, its best ever after the previous best haul of 70 medals (16 gold) at the Jakarta 2018 Asian Games.
• India has won 28 gold, 38 silver and 41 bronze medals and there are no events scheduled for India on the final day of the event on October 8.

Key Takeaways from the India’s Performance at the 19th Asian Games:

• Team medals in shooting indicate a new depth of talent: Gains in compound archery is good news since the event is likely to be included in the Olympics.
• The track-and-field domination: It added to India’s image as a growing sporting nation.
• The badminton gold and table tennis bronze: This has forced China to acknowledge India's existence in a discipline in which they have long taken their dominance for granted.
• 5 events where India saw a dip: These were tennis, bridge, kurash, wushu and table tennis.
• But in table tennis, the bronze won by Sutirtha Mukherjee and Ayhika Mukherje (after defeating the strong Chinese contenders) was actually one of the most significant among the 107 medals.
• Doesn’t translate into a medal rush at the Paris Olympics next year: This is because a bunch of medals in Hangzhou have come in events that aren’t in the Olympics and in many, the level of competition will increase several folds.

The Reason for India's Overall Performance Improvement:

• The government funding of the Olympic disciplines, primarily under the Target Olympic Podium Scheme.
• With no scarcity of financial resources, the quality of coaches, sports science experts and exposure trips abroad, have added up to improvement.

An Illustrative Case is Archery:

• The government spent Rs 24 crore in 2022-23. The federation tied up with NTPC in a deal worth Rs 115 crore over a period of five years, with an additional Rs 15 crore for one-time support to build infrastructure.
• Approximately Rs 2 crore was spent on hiring coaches from South Korea and Italy, getting sports performance and neuro-science experts from the US as well as getting 50 Indian coaches “exposed” to international seminars.
• Another Rs 3 crore was spent on national camps, where psychologists, nutritionists, strength and conditioning experts, were employed along with using video analysis software.
• This investment paid dividends. From just two archery medals in 2018, the count went up to nine in 2023.
• The compound archers completed a clean sweep of all the five gold medals on offer.
• Archers Jyothi Surekha Vennam and Ojas Pravin Deotale, with three gold medals each, were the most successful athletes of this Games.

Similar Stories in other Sports Too:

• In 2018, India won medals in 18 different sporting disciplines, which went up to 22 in 2023.
• At both editions, the top two contributions came from athletics and shooting, but Hangzhou saw an increase from 20 to 29 in athletics while shooters brought home 22 medals in comparison to just 9 the last time around.

○ These two events alone accounted for a combined increase of 22.

• In shooting, the addition of team events pushed the medal tally up but it also showed the improving depth in various categories as Indian shooters went toe-to-toe with China here.
• Athletics was always anticipated to win medals, but several outstanding performances stand out.

○ For the first time in Asiad history, India had a women’s javelin gold through Annu Rani, a men’s 3000-m steeplechase winner in Avinash Sable.

○ While badminton accounted for just an increase of 1 medal, it was a historic showing by Indian shuttlers as they finally ended the wait for a first ever gold, thanks to Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty.

Q1) What is the Target Olympic Podium Scheme?

TOPS (Target Olympic Podium Scheme) is a flagship program of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports started in 2014 (and revamped in 2018 to establish a technical support team) to provide assistance to India’s top athletes.
 

Q2) What is the history of Asian Games?

The first-ever Asian Games were held in New Delhi in 1951. Asian Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation from 1951 to 1978. Since 1982, the Olympic Council of Asia has regulated the Asian Games.

Source: Asian Games: From 70 medals to a record 107 — how and why the needle moved
 

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in news?
• What is Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS)?
• News Summary: India is launching a national framework for climate services
  • What is NFCS?
  • Why the NFCS is needed?
  • NCFS in other countries

Why in news?

• India is embarking on a major programme to launch its maiden national-level framework towards providing climate services and information.
• The National Framework for Climate Services (NFCS) is spearheaded by the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
• NFCS is based on the Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS).
• It envisions to bring a seamless working platform for users of climate information and services, and help decide and mitigate climate risks for key sectors — agriculture, energy, disaster management, health and water.

What is Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS)?

• Background
  • The announcement to establish a GFCS was made during the third World Climate Conference held in Geneva in 2009.
  • This framework is led by National Meteorological and Hydrological Services (NMHS) in their respective nations.
• About
  • GFCS is a partnership of governments and organisations at a global level, for the production and better usage of climate information and services.
  • It aims to facilitate researchers and users of climate information and services to join hands in order to make informed and actionable decisions for the long-term betterment.
• Functions
  • GFCS envisages to generate high-quality data from national and international databases on temperature, rainfall, wind, soil moisture and ocean conditions and other vital weather parameters.
  • This is aimed at creating long-term historical averages of these parameters, as well as maps, risk and vulnerability analyses, assessments and long-term projections and scenarios.
• Five major components under GFCS
  • These are Observations and Monitoring, Research, Modelling and Prediction, Climate Services Information System, User Interface Platform and Capacity Building.
  • At present, the priority sectors where the GFCS focuses upon are agriculture and food security, energy, health, water and disaster risk reduction.

News Summary: India is launching a national framework for climate services

What is NFCS?

• About
  • In lines with the global framework, the national framework will be based on country-specific weather and stakeholder needs.
  • It will be a multi-stakeholder platform to enable the development and delivery of climate services.
  • The goal of NFCS is to coordinate institutions so they can work together to: Co-design, Co-produce, Communicate, Deliver, Use climate.
  • Along with the identified sectors of focus, India could add other relevant sectors like transport, tourism and other emerging sectors from time to time.
• Nodal agency

o The nodal agency for the formulation and implementation of the national framework in India will be the IMD.

• Function
  • Initially, the NFCS will work in bridging functioning gaps between the various agencies who require climate services.
  • These include the hydrological, power, renewable energy, transport, dams and irrigation, health agencies are central, state and other levels.

Why the NFCS is needed?

• There remain many gap areas across terrains and the seas, wherein no weather data is available.
• There is a lack of long-term (100 years or more) climatological data from the Himalayan regions, the oceans, besides inexistence of radar and satellite-based climatology.
• With NFCS, the Met department aims to:
  • strengthen the observational network on land and the seas,
  • improve the data inflow and eventually use it to run weather and climate models for deriving climate predictions.
• The climate data and information products will help identify agricultural production, health trends, population distribution in high-risk areas, road and infrastructure mapping for the delivery of goods and other socio-economic variables.
• The early implementation and acceleration of NFCS will be possible when planned in a mission-mode and is driven by the country’s highest decision-making office.

NCFS in other countries

• Since the 2009 declaration of frameworks for climate services, Switzerland, China, Germany and the United Kingdom have launched the NFCS.
• With the first workshop organised recently in Pune, India has joined Cuba, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Nigeria, etc. where the NFCS-related national consultation workshops are being planned.

India will be soon releasing the statement of NFCS after consensus received from the key partnering stakeholders.

Q1) What is India Meteorological Department (IMD)?

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) is the national meteorological service of India. It was established in 1875. The IMD is an agency of the Ministry of Earth Sciences.

Q2) What are climate services?

Climate services (CS) may be defined as scientifically based information and products that enhance users' knowledge and understanding about the impacts of climate on their decisions and actions.

Source:

• Why India is launching a national framework for climate services
• Global Framework for Climate Services
  
   

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in news?
• Israel- Palestine: Synopsis of the Conflict
• What is Hamas?
• News Summary: Israel at war after Hamas surprise attack
  • How the Hamas attack on Israel unfolded?

Why in news?

• Israel declared a state of war after Palestinian militants launched barrages of rockets into southern and central Israel.
• The attack also combined gunmen breaching security barriers with a barrage of rockets fired from Gaza.
• The attack came 50 years and a day after Egyptian and Syrian forces launched an assault during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur.
• This was done in an effort to retrieve territory Israel had taken during a brief conflict in 1967.
• Attributing the attacks to the Palestinian militant group Hamas, the Israel Defence Forces began to carry out air strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip.

Israel- Palestine: Synopsis of the Conflict

• Early Phase

o In the 19th century the land of Palestine was inhabited by a multicultural population (approx. 86% Muslim, 10% Christian, and 4% Jewish) – living in peace.

o In the late 1800s, a group in Europe decided to colonize this land. Known as Zionists, their goal was to create a Jewish homeland.

• They considered locations in Africa and the Americas, before settling on Palestine.

o Hitler’s rise to power, led to increased Jewish immigration to Palestine. With the steady influx of Jews, the conflict in Palestine started to grow.

• UN Partition Plan

o In 1947 the United Nations decided to intervene. However, it did not choose the principle of “self-determination of peoples.

o Under considerable Zionist pressure, the UN recommended giving away 55% of Palestine to a Jewish state.

o This was done despite the fact that this group represented only about 30% of the total population, and owned under 7% of the land.

• 1947-1949 War
  • Fighting began almost as soon as the Resolution of November 1947 was approved.
  • On May 14, 1948, one day before the British Mandate (Palestine was a British colony) expired, Britaindeclared "the establishment of a Jewish State in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel".
  • This sparked a full-scale war (1948 Arab–Israeli War).
  • By the end of the war, Israel had conquered 78 percent of Palestine; and a new map was drawn up.
• 1967 War
  • Also known as a six-day war, Israeli forces launched a highly successful surprise attack on Egypt.
  • Israel occupied the final 22% of Palestine that had eluded it in 1948 – the West Bank and Gaza Strip
  • It also occupied parts of Egypt (since returned) and Syria (which remain under occupation). 
• Oslo peace process
  • In the 1993 a breakthrough agreement was negotiated between Israeli and Palestinian leaders in Oslo, Norway.
  • Under this process, the Israeli government and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) agreed on a plan to implement a two-state solution.

What is Hamas?

• About
  • Hamas is the largest Palestinian militant Islamist group and one of the two major political parties in the region.
  • Currently, it governs more than two million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
  • The organisation, however, is also known for its armed resistance against Israel (more on this later).
  • Hamas as a whole, or in some cases its military wing, is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and other countries.
• Background
  • The group was founded in the late 1980s, after the beginning of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
  • Hamas is essentially the internal metamorphosis of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood.
• Reasons for its creation
  • The main reason for Hamas’ creation was a deep sense of failure that had been set within the Palestinian national movement by the late 1980s.
  • This primarily happened after the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) — involved in the armed struggle against Israel from the mid-1960s to ‘liberate Palestine’ — made two massive concessions.
• The PLO recognized Israel and its right to exist — thereby, relinquishing its goal of liberating Palestine.
• Two, it also dropped the armed struggle as a strategy, for the sake of a negotiated settlement.

o Hamas gained prominence after it opposed the Oslo Peace Accords signed in the early 1990s between Israel and the PLO.

• Some of the worst flare-ups between Hamas and Israel
  • The deadliest face-off between the two sides took place in 2014.
  • At least 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, were killed during 50 days of fighting.
  • On the Israeli side, 67 soldiers and six civilians were killed.
  • In May 2021, hundreds of Palestinians were wounded in clashes with Israeli security forces at the Al Aqsa compound in Jerusalem.
  • After demanding Israel withdraw security forces from the compound, Hamas launched a series of rockets from Gaza into Israel.
  • Israel hit back with air strikes on Gaza. Fighting went on for 11 days.

News Summary: Israel at war after Hamas surprise attack

How the Hamas attack on Israel unfolded?

• Covering rocket barrage

o Hamas said it had fired 5,000 rockets in a first barrage. Israel’s military said 2,500 rockets were fired.

• Dawn infiltration

o The barrage served as cover for an unprecedented multi-pronged infiltration of fighters.

• Fighting at Israeli military bases

o As per Israel’s military, Palestinian fighters had penetrated at least three military installations around the frontier.

• Border towns raid

o Fighters raided various Israeli border town and started attack on civilians.

o Israel’s Foreign Ministry said Hamas gunmen had gone house-to-house killing civilians.

• Taking captives

o Israeli media has reported that gunmen have seized hostages in Ofakim.

• Israeli Strikes

o Israel’s military spokesperson said the Airforce started carrying out strikes in Gaza. Medics in Gaza said dozens of people were killed in the strikes.

Q1) Where is Al Aqsa mosque?

The golden domed Al Aqsa Mosque sits in the heart of Jerusalem's walled city, on one of the most fought-over spaces of land in the world.
 

Q2) Where is Yom Kippur?

Yom Kippur is celebrated around the world by the majority of Jews. It's a legal holiday in Israel. Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish calendar. It's also known as the Day of Atonement. It takes place every fall, ten days after Rosh Hashanah.

Source: 

• Indian Express
• CNN