FSSAI's Amended Rules on Capping Trans Fats in Food Products

• FSSAI has amended rules to cap trans-fatty acids (TFAs) in food products to 2% by 2022
• TFA's are mainly found in baked and fried foods, pre-packaged snacks & cooking oils
• They increase the shelf life of food by lowering their oxidation potential
• They are less costly than animal fat like butter
• They increase the bad cholesterol (LDL) and reduce the good cholesterol (HDL)
• They increase the risk of coronary diseases
• Earlier in December 2020 FSSAI capped TFAs in oils and fats to 3% by 2021, and 2% by 2022 from present levels of 5 %
  • WHO recommends 0% trans fats by 2023

General Thimaiyya Museum inaugrated at Madikeri by the President

President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurated General Thimayya Museum at Madikeri. He regarded him as one of India's greatest soldiers.

• He had served as the Chief of Military staff between 1957-1961

Additional Info about Madikeri:

• lies in the Western Ghats and is known for its coffee plantations
• It is also the source for River Cauvery from Baba Budan Hills nearby.

Currency Swap Agreement between SL & India

The Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) settled a $400 million currency swap facility from the Reserve Bank (RBI) of India.

What is a Currency Swap Facility?

• The term swap means exchange.
• Under this agreement, two contracting countries loan each other a specified amount in local currencies.
• Currency swap agreements involve trade in local currencies, where countries pay for imports and exports at pre-determined rates of exchange without the involvement of a third-country currency like the US dollar.

Benefits of Currency Swap facility:

• The swap operations carry no exchange rate or other market risks. The transaction terms are set in advance.
• It reduces the need of maintaining foreign exchange reserves for bilateral trade. Thus, it promotes bilateral trade.

What are Micro Biomes?

• Microbiome refers to microorganisms living inside humans and animals.
• Eating too much fat and sugar as a child can alter one’s microbiome forever.
• The balance of useful and harmful components, if disturbed, results in ill health.

Magnetic fields in plants

• A recent study from Germany found that the Venus flytrap (a carnivore) plant is capable of generating small magnetic fields.
• When the plant sends electrical signals to trigger the closure of its traps, a biomagnetism phenomenon was observed.
• The trap gets electrically excited due to touch, osmotic energy & even heat and cold.

Budget Announcement for One Person Companies

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced measures to ease norms on setting up one-person companies (OPCs).

What is a one-person company?

• A one-person company is a company that can be formed by just one person as a shareholder

How are they different from other companies?

• These companies are different to private companies which require a minimum of two members to establish.
• the person and the company are considered separate legal entities. In sole proprietorship, the owner and the business are considered the same.
• In a one-person company, the sole owner’s liability is limited to that person’s investment whereas in a sole proprietorship the owner has unlimited liability as they are not considered different legal entities.
• OPCs do not need to conduct an annual general meeting, which is a requirement for other companies.
• A one-person company also does not require the signatures of both its company secretary and director on its annual returns. One is enough.

The concept was introduced in the Companies Act of 2013 based on the suggestions of the J.J. Irani Committee Report.

What has been proposed in the budget for OPCs?

• An earlier rule that a one-person company would cease to have that status once its paid-up share capital exceeds 50 lakh or its average turnover for the preceding three years exceeds 2 crores, has been lifted.
• The residency limit for an Indian citizen to set up an OPC has been reduced from 182 days to 120 days.
• Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) are allowed to incorporate OPCs in India.

IT Act, 2000: Important Provisions vis-a-vis Social Media Regulation

Tackling harmful content such as hate speech, rumours, inflammatory and provocative messages and child pornography needs cooperation between technology services companies and law enforcement agencies.

Information Technology Act, 2000, as amended from time to time, governs all activities related to the use of computer resources.

Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000

• It covers all ‘intermediaries’ who play a role in the use of computer resources and electronic records.
• It includes providers of telecom service, network service, Internet service and web hosting, besides search engines, online payment and auction sites, online marketplaces and cyber cafes.
• It includes any person who, on behalf of another, “receives, stores or transmits” any electronic record.
• Social media platforms would fall under this definition.
• Section 69 of the Act confers on the Central and State governments the power to issue directions “to intercept, monitor or decrypt any information generated, transmitted, received or stored in any computer resource.
• Grounds on which these powers may be exercised are: in the interest of the sovereignty or integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states, public order.
• Intermediaries are required to preserve and retain specified information in a manner and format prescribed by the Centre for a specified duration.
• Contravention of this provision may attract a prison term that may go up to 3 years.
• Intermediaries such as Internet and data service providers are protected from being made liable for content that users may post or generate.
• However, the exemption from liability does not apply if there is evidence that the intermediary abetted or induced the commission of the unlawful act involved.

Concept of Bad Bank as Proposed in the Budget

Finance Minister in her Budget speech revived the idea of a ‘bad bank’ by stating that the Centre proposes to set up an asset reconstruction company to acquire bad loans from banks.

What is a ‘bad bank’?

• A bad bank is a financial entity set up to buy non-performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans, from banks.
• The aim of setting up a bad bank is to help ease the burden on banks by taking bad loans off their balance sheets and getting them to lend again to customers without constraints.
• The idea of a bad bank has been tried out in countries such as the United States, Germany, Japan and others in the past.
• The total size of bad loans decreased to 9 lakh crore as of March 31, 2020, down significantly from over 10 lakh crore two years ago.
• But experts point out that it is mostly due to larger write-offs rather than improved recovery of bad loans.
• Due to the lockdown imposed last year, the proportion of banks’ gross non-performing assets is expected to rise sharply.

Retail Direct Gilt Securities Account for Retail Customers by RBI

The RBI's proposal to provide direct access to retail investors to its government securities investment platform opens the door to this risk-free investment for retailers.

• Retail investors can now directly open their gilt accounts with the RBI through the 'Retail Direct’ facility to access both the primary market – where investors buy directly from the issuer — and secondary markets where trading takes place among investors.
• G-secs are debt instruments issued by the government and considered the safest form of investment.
• Stock exchanges till now aggregated the demand for gilts and placed it to the RBI in the (Negotiated Dealing System-Order Matching) NDS-OM
• Now, a retail investor can place a direct bid with the NDS-OM system and open a gilt account in the e-Kuber system, the RBI platform for gilt auctions.