Former deputy chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia on  Aug 17 said it would be unrealistic to assume that India would record a sustained growth of 8 per cent, which is needed to become a 'developed nation' by 2047.

Participating in a panel discussion organised by the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP), he said India's annual per capita income is around USD 2,000 and it is unlikely that it would increase to USD 12,000 by 2047 to become a high-income country as per the World Bank's definition.

According to Ahluwalia, those who think India's growth projections in the near future are 7 - 7.5 per cent should recognise that the country cannot maintain that pace for such a long time. "So 6 per cent average economic growth rate (for India) is not unreasonable," he added.

Referring to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious target of making India a developed nation by 2047, Ahluwalia said it depends on what Modi meant by 'developed country' as there is no uniform definition of it.

"If you go by the World Bank's definition of a +high-income country, that is over USD 12,000 annual per capita income and starting at about USD 2,000 annual per capita income, even on a strong assumption, we won't cross that USD 12,000 annual per capita income," he said.

While in the strong policy scenario, India's annual per capita income will be about USD 9,600 by 2047, Ahluwalia said in the central scenario, the country would get to USD 7,500.

India, which is the world's sixth largest economy with a GDP of USD 2.7 trillion, is currently classified as a developing nation.

A developed country is typically characterised by a relatively high level of economic growth, a general standard of living, higher per capita income as well as good performance on the Human Development Index (HDI) which includes education, literacy and health.

Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on  Aug 18 asked telecom service providers to gear up for 5G launch, post the issuance of spectrum allocation letters.

In first, the Department of Telecom (DoT) issued spectrum assignment letters on the same day the successful bidders of radio waves made upfront payments.

The DoT has received payment of around Rs 17,876 crore from service providers -- Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Adani Data Networks and Vodafone Idea for the spectrum they won in a recent auction.

The country's biggest ever auction of telecom spectrum received a record Rs 1.5 lakh crore worth of bids, with Mukesh Ambani's Jio cornering nearly half of all the airwaves sold with a Rs 87,946.93 crore bid.

Bharti Enterprises founder and chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said that his company Bharti Airtel received a spectrum allocation letter within a few hours of making an upfront payment to the DoT.

Airtel acquired 19,867.8 MHz spectrum by securing a pan-India footprint of 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands and selected purchase of radio waves in the low and mid-band spectrum for Rs 43,039.63 crore.

Airtel has said that it will launch 5G services this month. While all telecom operators have opted to make payments in 20 annual instalments, Bharti Airtel paid Rs 8,312.4 crore equivalent to four annual instalments.

Reliance Jio has made payments of Rs 7,864.78 crore, Vodafone Idea Rs 1,679.98 crore and Adani Data Networks Rs 18.94 crore. Richest Indian, Gautam Adani's group has placed bids worth Rs 211.86 crore for 400 MHz in a band that is not used for offering public services.

The government on  Aug 17 approved the enhancement in the limit of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) by Rs 50,000 crore for the hospitality sector.

The overall allotment has been increased from Rs 4.5 lakh crore to Rs 5 lakh crore, with the additional amount being earmarked exclusively for the tourism and hospitality sector. The increase has been done on account of the severe disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on hospitality and related enterprises, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur said.

The additional amount would be made applicable to enterprises in hospitality and related sectors till March 31, 2023.

About Rs 3.67 lakh crore amount of loans have already been sanctioned under the scheme till August 5, 2022.

The government further said that given their high employment intensity and direct and indirect linkages with other sectors, their revival is also necessary for supporting overall economic recovery.

Bank of Baroda has launched a new deposit scheme offering interest rates of up to 6 per cent on domestic retail term deposits.

The 'Baroda Tiranga Deposit Scheme' marks the 75th Independence Day of India, which is a special term deposit scheme offering higher interest rates.

The scheme, to be available till December 31, 2022, has two tenor buckets of 444 days and 555 days, offering interest rates of 5.75 per cent per annum and 6 per cent per annum, respectively.

The scheme was launched on  Aug 16 and is applicable on retail deposits below Rs 2 crore .

Senior citizens will get additional interest rates on their deposits under the scheme.

Wrestlers Ravi Dahiya (57kg), Bajrang Punia (65kg) and Deepak Punia (86kg) will train overseas for the upcoming World Championships scheduled in Belgrade, Serbia from September 10 to 18.

Ravi along with his two sparring partners and a physiotherapist has left for Russia and will join the Indian squad directly in Serbia. The duo of Bajrang and Deepak will leave for the USA soon. They will train at Michigan University, where they had trained ahead of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Given the visa restrictions in the USA, the duo, however, would not be accompanied by their respective sparring partners.

Q1. Name the state which will 1,000 youth to Cellular Jail in Andaman to draw inspiration from freedom fighters ?

1. Uttar Pradesh
2. Madhya Pradesh
3. Gujarat
4. Assam
5. None of These 

Q2. Name the Former deputy chairman of the erstwhile Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia on  Aug 17 said it would be unrealistic to assume that India would record a sustained growth of 8 per cent, which is needed to become a 'developed nation' by 2047 ?

1. Abhijit Banerjee
2. Kaushik Basu
3. Montek Singh Ahluwalia
4. Manmohan Singh
5. None of These

Q3. World  Wrestling Championships scheduled to be held from September 10 to 18 in

1. Belgrade, Serbia
2. Sofia, Bulgaria
3. Istanbul , Turkey
4. Tehran , Iran
5.  None of These

Q4. Name the deposit scheme which has been launched by the  Bank of Baroda offering interest rates of up to 6 per cent on domestic retail term deposits ?

1. 'Baroda  Azadi Deposit Scheme'
2. 'Baroda Tiranga Deposit Scheme'
3. 'Baroda Amritashva Deposit Scheme'
4. 'Baroda 75th Independence Day Deposit Scheme'
5. None of These

Q5. The government on  Aug 17 approved the enhancement in the limit of the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) for the hospitality sector  by Rs 50,000 crore

1. Rs 20,000 crore
2. Rs 30,000 crore
3. Rs 50,000 crore
4. Rs 60,000 crore
5. None of These

Answers

1---------------------------------4  Assam

2---------------------------------3   Montek Singh Ahluwalia

3---------------------------------- 1 Belgrade, Serbia

4----------------------------------2 'Baroda Tiranga Deposit Scheme'

5--------------------------------3  Rs 50,000 crore

With RBI hiking the lending rate, the Union Cabinet on Aug 17 earmarked Rs 34,856 crore towards the interest subvention scheme to help banks provide short-term agriculture loans of up to Rs 3 lakh at a rate of 7 per cent.

Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur said the Cabinet has decided to restore interest subvention on short-term agriculture loans to 1.5 per cent for all financial institutions.

The interest subvention of 1.5 per cent will be provided to lending institutions for the financial years 2022-23 to 2024-25 for short-term loans of up to Rs 3 lakh to the farmers.

The interest subvention support requires additional budgetary provisions of Rs 34,856 crore for the period of 2022-23 to 2024-25 under the scheme

Thakur said the government's support to banks for the interest subvention scheme was stopped in May 2020 as lenders were themselves able to provide short-term agriculture loans at 7 per cent.

However, with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) increasing the repo rate or short-term lending rate thrice by 140 basis points in recent months, it became necessary to compensate banks so that they can continue providing agriculture loans at 7 per cent.

Thakur also said the government has not let the fertiliser prices to rise despite the increase in global prices.

Further, the minister said the fertiliser subsidy in the current fiscal year is likely to be more than Rs 2 lakh crore.

In the Union Budget for 2022-23, the fertiliser subsidy was estimated at Rs 1.05 lakh crore.

The subsidy was Rs 1.62 lakh crore in the last financial year.

The government had introduced Interest Subvention Scheme (ISS), now renamed as Modified Interest Subvention Scheme (MISS), to provide short-term credit to farmers at subsidised interest rates.

Under the scheme, short-term agriculture loan of up to Rs 3 lakh is available to farmers engaged in agriculture and other allied activities at 7 per cent.

Billionaire industrialist and Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani has been accorded a 'Z' category VIP security cover of CRPF commandos by the central government.

They said the all-India cover will be on a "payment basis" and is expected to cost about Rs 15-20 lakh per month.

The security cover under the central list was accorded to Adani  on the basis of a threat perception report prepared by central security agencies.

The Union Home Ministry has asked the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) VIP security wing to take over the job and its squad is now with the protectee.

RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani was given a 'Z+' category cover of CRPF commandos by the Union government in 2013, followed by a lower category cover to his wife Neeta Ambani some years later.