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Prelim Bits 15-12-2017

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December 15, 2017

Wholesale Price Index (WPI)

  • WPI represents the price of basket of goods at a wholesale stage i.e. goods that are sold in bulk and traded between organizations instead of consumers.
  • WPI is calculated by the Office of Economic Advisor, DIPP under Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
  • The base year for the index is 2011-12.
  • The components of WPI include Primary articles, Manufacturing items, fuel and power with different weightages assigned to them.
  • The weightages are Primary Articles (Weight 22.62%), Fuel & Power (Weight 13.15%), and Manufactured Products (Weight 64.23%).
  • It basically indicates the rise in profitability of industries.
  • The annual rate of inflation is calculated based on monthly WPI.
  • WPI index for the month of November, 2017 rose to eight month high (3.93%).

Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)

  • OIC is an international organization founded in 1969, consisting of 57 member states.
  • Its administrative centre is located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
  • Turkey currently holds the chairmanship of the organization.
  • India is not a member to this organisation.
  • The organisation works to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony.
  • At the recently held summit in Turkey, it has declared “East Jerusalem” as the capital of Palestine, rejecting the US stance as “dangerous”.

Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana

  • The programme was launched to give access to cheap credit to poor and small fledgling businesspersons with the objective to provide self-employment.
  • Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd. [MUDRA] is an NBFC supporting development of micro enterprise sector.
  • Under the scheme, loans are given to non-farm income generating enterprises in manufacturing and trading and services whose credit needs are below Rs.10 lakh.
  • MUDRA provides refinance support to Banks / MFIs for lending to micro business.
  • Public sector, regional, rural, State and urban cooperative banks to eligible for refinancing from MUDRA.
  • Loans can be availed under three categories
    1. Shishu for loans up to Rs.50,000;
    2. Kishor for loans above Rs. 50,000 and up to Rs.5 lakh;
    3. Tarun for loans above Rs.5 lakh and up to Rs.10 lakh.
  • Mudra debit cards are issued to borrowers. Using these, they can withdraw the loan from any ATM in India, as and when they need the money.
  • Union government has recently tasked Labour Bureau to carry out the survey to ascertain the number of jobs created under the scheme.

World Inequality Report

  • The report is published by World Inequality Lab, based at the Paris School of Economics, which aims to promote research on global inequality dynamics.
  • According to the report, since 1980, 27% of all new income worldwide was captured by the richest 1%, while the poorest 50% captured only 13% of growth.
  • It has highlighted the inequality prevailing in India and stated that the top 10% of the earners accounted for 56% of the income earned in 2014.
  • The report says that deregulation and opening-up reforms in India since 1980s have led to substantial increase in inequality.

Sakhi

  • National Workshop on Role of Sakhi was recently inaugurated by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
  • Sakhi is a one-stop centre for providing medical, legal and rehabilitation facilities for women subjected to any kind of violence.
  • These centres are focused to provide integrated support and assistance under one roof both in private and public spaces in a phased manner.
  • It focuses on strengthening of Multi Sectoral Response to violence faced by Women.

World Conference on Vedas

  • The conference is being held in New Delhi, inaugurated by Vice President.
  • It will have in-depth discussions on de-mystifying various myths and fallacies surrounding the Vedas and Manu Smriti.
  • A special session on the World Parliament and UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and declaration on human rights will be other salient features of the conference.

 

Source: The Hindu, PIB

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