The Reserve Bank of India will soon come up with India’s first payments bank, which will offer deposit and payment services but not provide loans. 

This idea is in line with the recommendations made by the Nachiket Morcommittee. The central bank sees huge potential for financial inclusion with focus on remittances by involving payment system product.

As per the RBI, while full-service banks require an entry capital of Rs.500 crore, payments banks can start operations with a capital of just Rs.50 crore since all their money will be invested in safe government securities.

They will be required to comply with all RBI guidelines for commercial banks.

According to the recommendations of Nachiket Mor committee:

• Permission should be given to existing banks to create subsidiaries to operate payments banks.
• Payments banks may be created by converting prepaid payment issuers (PPIs). These companies provide cards that customers can use to make payments with the money stored in them. There are 27 PPIs in the country, including Itz Cash Card Ltd, Oxigen Services (India) Pvt. Ltd and Airtel M Commerce Services Ltd.

A long wait for India ended when the country became a permanent member of theWashington Accord, an esteemed international treaty on engineering studies and mobility of engineers across signatory countries including the US, the UK and Australia. Permanent membership reflects on the country’s stature in the technical education space. Until now, India has been just a provisional member since 2007.

The meeting of the International Engineering Alliance of WA member nations met in Wellington, New Zealand and gave India the signatory status to join the select group of nations who are permanent signatories to the Washington Accord (WA). This will ensure highest quality assurance standards to be implemented in our technical and engineering programmes and provide global mobility to our engineering graduates​. It will significantly enhance their employment opportunities around the world.

The Washington Accord:

It is an international accreditation treaty for professional engineering academic degrees, between the bodies responsible for accreditation in its signatory nations. Initially when the Washington Accord came into force in 1989, only 6 developed countries were its members.

As of 2014, the signatories are: Australia, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Hong KongChina, India, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The accord acknowledges that there is significant uniformity of programs accredited by those signatories. Every signatory countries recognizes the graduates of accredited programs by every other signatory countries as having met the academic requirements for entry to the practice of engineering. Recognition of accredited programs is not retroactive but takes effect only from the date of admission of the country to signatory status.

The treaty covers undergraduate engineering degrees under Outcome-based education approach. The accord doesn’t take into account engineering technology and postgraduate programs, although some engineering technology programs are covered under the Sydney Accord and the Dublin Accord. Only qualifications granted after the signatory country or region became part of the Washington Accord are recognized. The pact is not directly responsible for the licensing or registration of Professional Engineers and Chartered Engineers, but it does cover the academic prerequisites that are part of the licensing processes in countries party to the accord.

Indian origin scientist Rasik Ravindra has been elected as member of theUnited Nations Commissionon the Limits of Continental Shelf (CLCS) asIndia’s candidate for member of the Commission. 

Rasik, an alumnus of the Jammu and Kashmir University, is one of India’s eminent scientists. He has a rich experience of over four decades in different spheres of geosciences that include geological studies in Antarctica, India andBhutan.  He has been honored with many prestigious awards including the National Award for Polar Sciences and Cryosphere in the year 2013 and National Mineral Award in the year 1990. He has wide global experience and has also held coveted positions that included negotiations in policy, technical and scientific issues.

United Nations Commission on the Limits of Continental Shelf (CLCS):

• The CLCS has 21 members, who are experts in the domains of geophysics, geology, or hydrography, and are elected for a term of 5 years by the nations who are party to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) among their nationals. It is the UN body that is empowered to allocate new seabed territory to countries

Lt Gen Amit Sharma (58) has been appointed as the new Commander-in-Chief of Strategic Forces Command (SFC) which guards the nuclear weapon store of the country. He takes charge from Vice Admiral S P S Cheema as the latter has moved to Kochi to head the Navy’s Southern Command based there. Previously, Sharma was the Chief of Staff of Japiur-based South Western Command of the army and had headed its elite 21 Strike Corps.

The SFC is responsible to implement the directives of the Nuclear Command Authority (NCA). It has the sole responsibility of starting the process of delivering nuclear arsenal after receiving approval from NCA.

Government-owned power equipment manufacturer Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) commissioned 68 MW Unit at the Rampur Hydro Electric Project in Himachal Pradesh. With this, BHEL has commissioned four units of the 412 MW hydro power plant of SJVN Limited.

Rampur hydel project has been built on River Satluj in Himachal Pradesh – 120 km from Shimla. In this project BHEL contributed in supply, construction and commissioning of turbines, generators, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system (SCADA), associated station auxiliaries, Gas Insulated Switchgear (GIS) and other electrical and mechanical machinery.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) released the Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2014. As of now, the Red List has 73,686 assessed species, of which 22,103 are threatened with extinction. The release includes lemurs, Japanese eels, slipper orchids.

The Brazilian three-banded Armadillo (Tolypeutes tricinctus) which is FIFA World Cup 2014 mascot has been enlisted asVulnerable as its population has decreased by more than a third in the past 10 due to destruction of half its shrubland habitat.

The Brazilian 3-banded armadillo (Tolypeutes tricinctus) is an armadillo species endemic to Brazil. In Brazil it is locally known as “tatu-bola” as it can roll itself into a ball. 

Lemurs are one of the most threatened groups of vertebrates on the planet as more than 90% of lemurs are now threatened with extinction.

Some of the facts about Lemurs:

• Of the 99 known species, which live on the island of Madagascar 22 species are critically endangered, including the Indri, the largest living lemur.
• 48 species of lemur are endangered, including Madame Berthe’s mouse lemur, the world smallest primate.
• 20 lemur species are vulnerable.
• Lemurs are threatened by the loss of their tropical forest habitat due to rise in illegal logging on account of political instability and surging levels of poverty in the past 20 years.

Japanese eel:

It is a traditional food in Japan and the country’s most expensive food fish. It is endangered due to:

• Habitat loss
• Unsustainable fishing
• Obstructions to migration
• Pollution
• Changes in oceanic currents

The assessment of species is done using the Species Information Service Toolkit, an application developed in partnership with Solertium and IUCN.

Modi lays foundation stone for Kholongchu hydro-power project

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday laid the foundation stone of the 600MW Kholongchu Hydro-electric project, a joint venture between India and Bhutan.

The project’s foundation stone was laid by Mr. Modi electronically from the courtyard of Bhutan’s Parliament building after addressing a joint session.

Three Hydro-electric projects (HEPs) totalling 1416 MW (Chukha, Tala and Kurichu) are already operational.

Three more HEPs [Punatsangchu I (1200 MW), Punatsangchu II (1020 MW) and Mangdechu (720 MW)] are under construction.

They are scheduled to be commissioned in 2017-18.

In April, 2014, the two countries had signed a framework agreement on four more JV-model HEPs totalling 2120MW. Of these, pre-construction activities for the 600MW Kholongchu HEP as a JV-model HEP between Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) and Druk Green Power Corporation (DGPC) will commence soon.

“Our hydropower cooperation with Bhutan is a classic example of win-win cooperation,” an Indian official said, adding that “the hydropower projects generate export revenues for Bhutan, cement our economic partnership and provide clean and low-cost electricity to India.”