Current Affair 1:

Making UPI Viable For Both The Public

 

A bit long topic but you read it. It is written in simple language and you will get to know lot of things.

Unified Payments System['UPI'] was launched by the National Payments Corporation of India ['NPCI'] with the aim of integrating the payment mechanisms of India. Since, its launch in 2016, digital transactions using UPI has increased significantly.

As per RBI's annual reports, for the year of 2015, total digital payments for retail transactions amounted to Rs. 1.54 lakh crores. However, after the advent of UPI, this number reached Rs.17.4lakh crores in 2022. This increase in transactions can be credited to several features of UPI but the most important being no transaction cost. However, this lack of a transaction fee on UPI platforms has become a bone of contention between the Finance Ministry and the Payment Council of India ['PCI'], which represents the digital payment aggregators operating in India.

Even though there is no fee for a transaction on UPI, this does not mean that there is no cost for maintaining and operating the UPI system. It is the banks and the RBI to a certain extent who are absorbing the cost. The same is due to the zero-Merchant Discount Rate ['MDR'] policy mandated by the government which means that the banks are not permitted to charge the merchants, the recipient of the money, a fee for facilitation online transactions. This zero-MDR policy costed the digital payment aggregators, a total loss of INR 5,500 crores.

RBI states that it will absorb such costs from the money that is saved by handling less cash as people have moved towards digital payments. For the same, government has been allocating a budget every year as subsidies to incentivize the banks and other digital payment aggregators to grow their UPI business. However, the allocation made (Rs. 1,500 crores for FY 2021-2022) is not enough to even cover the operational cost incurred by the banks. Such high losses on a yearly basis and lack of subsidies led to the PCI pushing for a roll back of the Zero MDR policy. To discuss the possibility of introducing charges on UPI, RBI released a discussion paper in 2022.

A UPI transaction involves the payer PSP ['Payment Service Provider'] (such as Google Pay and PayTM), payee PSP, remitter bank, beneficiary bank, NPCI, bank account holders (payer and payee/merchant) and Third-Party Application Providers ['TPAPs'] (such as Amazon Pay which provides UPI services through a PSP Bank).

Further given that the UPI settlement among participant banks requires the banks to put in place adequate systems and processes to address the settlement risk which involves cost to the system, it is imperative to provide compensation for the same. However, within a few days of this discussion paper being floated, the finance ministry issued a clarification on Twitter contradicting this discussion paper and stating that UPI is a 'digital public good' and that there is no consideration in the government to levy charges for UPI based transactions. It was also stated that the concerns of the service providers have to be met through other means.

The finance ministry labelled UPI as a 'digital public good'. This term has not been defined by the by any law or any Court of India. However, it can be traced back to 2017 when it was used to define new technologies that can be implemented at a national scale to improve the services for citizen as well as achieve Sustainable Development Goals ['SDGs']. Further, it has been defined by the United Nation's Roadmap for Digital Cooperation to include open source software that include adhere to privacy and other applicable laws and best practices, do no harm, and help attain the SDGs.

It can be understood from these definitions that the Finance Ministry aimed to say that since UPI is an open source API regulated by the RBI which is furthering SDGs 8 and 9 which are decent work/economic growth and building resilient infrastructure to foster innovation, respectively. UPI should be free of cost to keep it accessible for the public. This stance of government is reasonable and keeping UPI an open source software is justified. However, what parts of a UPI transaction constitute as a public good is something that needs to be considered.

As discussed before, a UPI transaction involves 2 PSPs/TPAPs, a remitter bank, a beneficiary bank, and NPCI other than the transactors. Other than NPCI, all the other facilitators are usually private companies which have aim to generate a profit and are paying a fee for every transaction. It is unreasonable to categorise them as a part of the 'digital public good' which should be free for the general public.

To ensure continuity of business for the PSPs, banks and the TPAPs, it is imperative to find middle ground and introduce a reasonable fee that the private stakeholders can charge while keeping the UPI economical for the public. Since the part played by the NPCI in a UPI transaction can be labelled as a digital public good, the government can subsidize the same and allow the PSPs, banks and the TPAPs to recoup their costs.

Current Affair 2:

What is Interpol’s Red Corner Notice?

 

What is Interpol?

The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO), commonly known as Interpol is an inter-governmental organization that facilitates international police cooperation to control crime.  The Interpol has 195 member countries, with its headquarters in Lyon, France. 

Each of the member countries has an Interpol National Central Bureau (NCB). They facilitate the respective country’s national law enforcement with other countries and with the General Secretariat, which is Interpol’s body that coordinates its policing and administrative activities.

What is Red Notice?

Criminals or suspects often flee a country to evade facing justice. A Red Corner Notice also called as Red Notice (RN) is a request to law enforcements worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest such fugitives. It alerts the police forces across the world about these fugitives who are wanted internationally.

A RN contains information that helps identify the wanted person including – name, date of birth, nationality, physical attributes like colour of hair, eyes, etc. along with pictures and biometric information. It also includes information of the crimes that they are wanted for.

 

Interpol issues a RN at the request of a member country. The country which issues the request need not be the home country of the fugitive. Interpol acts on the request of a country where the alleged crime is committed. A Red Notice request can also be raised by International Criminal courts and Tribunals.

It ought to be noted that Red Notice is not an international arrest warrant. It is a request to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender or similar legal action. Interpol cannot compel the law enforcements authorities in any of the countries to arrest someone who has a RN issued. Each member country determines on the legal value it gives to a Red Notice.

Not all requests for Red Notice are accepted by Interpol. Due diligence is done to ensure that the RN request is in compliance with Interpol’s rules & regulations.

Few of the reasons why RNs are found to be non-complaint include.

1. The requests are predominantly of political, military, religious or racial character.
2. The request is in contravention to Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
3. Not meeting the minimum penalty requirements
4. The offences in RN request are part of the excluded offences. 

 

Highest number of Red Notices are issued to Russian citizens.

A majority of the Red Notices that are publicly available are issued to those with nationality as Russian. They constitute around 40% of the total red notices available for the public to view.

Russia is followed by the Latin American country of El-Salvador. Around 15% of those who received Red Notices have citizenship of El-Salvador. Russia and El-Salvador make up more than half of the current RNs.

 

 

Apart from its own citizens, India issued Red Notices for citizens of Pakistan, U.K, Canada among others

While the number of Red Notices of Indian citizens and those wanted by India are comparatively much lower than that of Russia & El-Salvador, it does rank among the top-countries.  As per the current information available for public on the Interpol website, there are more than 200 red notices for Indian citizens. A majority of these are wanted by India. Apart from these, Indian citizens are also wanted by USA, Canada, Cyprus etc among others.

India also ranks higher in the number of fugitives that it has issued Red Notices to. Most of them are its own citizens. Apart from them, India has also issued notices for citizens of other countries like Pakistan, United Kingdom, Bangladesh, etc.

 

Current Affair 3:

National Technical Textile Mission

 

About Technical Textiles

 

Technical Textiles is an advanced technology backed sunrise sector which is steadily gaining ground in India. Technical textiles are functional fabrics that have applications across various industries including automobiles, civil engineering and construction, agriculture, healthcare, industrial safety, personal protection etc.

Technical Textiles are futuristic and niche segment of textiles, which are used for various applications ranging from agriculture, roads, railway tracks, sportswear, health on one end to bullet proof jacket, fireproof jackets, high altitude combat gear and space applications on another end of spectrum.

Technical textiles are textiles materials and products manufactured primarily for technical performance and functional properties rather than aesthetic characteristics.

About the Mission (NTTM), National Technical Textile Mission

With a view to position the country as a global leader in Technical Textiles, National Technical Textiles Mission (NTTM) has been approved with a four-year implementation period from FY 2020-21 to 2023-24.

The Mission will have four components:

• Component -I (Research, Innovation and Development) 
• Component –II (Promotion and Market Development) –

• Component – III (Export Promotion) –
• Component- IV (Education, Training, Skill Development) –

India shares nearly 6% of world market size of 250 Billion USD. However, the annual average growth of the segment is 12%, as compared to 4% world average growth. Penetration level of technical textiles is low in India at 5-10%, against 30-70% in advanced countries. The Mission aims at improving penetration level of technical textiles in the country.

The National Technical Textiles Mission will get implemented through a 3-tier institutional mechanism constituting as follows;

Powers of Mission Steering Group: The Mission Steering Group is fully empowered to approve all financial norms in respect of all Schemes, Components and Programme of the NTTM. In addition, all scientific / technological research projects under the NTTM shall require approval of the Mission Steering Group.

Powers of Empowered Programme Committee: The Empowered Programme Committee(EPC) will approve all projects within the financial limit of each programme as approved by the Mission Steering Group, except Research Projects. The EPC will also monitor the implementations of various components of the Mission and guide the Mission Directorate on implementation matters.

Powers of Committee on Technical Textiles on Research, Development & Innovation: The Committee on Technical Textiles on Research, Development & Innovation will identify and recommend all research projects related to strategic sectors such as defence, para-military, security, space, and atomic energy to the Mission Steering Group for approval. 

Current Affair 4:

RBI launches दक्ष (DAKSH) - Reserve Bank’s Advanced Supervisory Monitoring System

 

The Reserve Bank of India has been taking various initiatives in strengthening supervision, which among other initiatives include adoption of latest data and analytical tools as well as leveraging technology for implementing more efficient and automated work processes.

In continuation of this effort, Shri Shaktikanta Das, Governor, today launched a new SupTech initiative named “दक्ष (DAKSH) - Reserve Bank’s Advanced Supervisory Monitoring System”, which is expected to make the Supervisory processes more robust.

‘दक्ष (DAKSH)’ means ‘efficient’ & ‘competent’, reflecting the underlying capabilities of the application. ‘दक्ष (DAKSH)’ is a web-based end-to-end workflow application through which RBI shall monitor compliance requirements in a more focused manner with the objective of further improving the compliance culture in Supervised Entities (SEs) like Banks, NBFCs, etc.

The application will also enable seamless communication, inspection planning and execution, cyber incident reporting and analysis, provision of various MIS reports etc., through a Platform which enables anytime-anywhere secure access.

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