Important Facts for Prelims (8th December 2018)

• 08 Dec 2018

CAD Widens to 2.9% of GDP

• India's Current Account Deficit (CAD) widened to 2.9% of the gross domestic product in the Q2 (quarter which ended in September) compared with 1.1% in the year-ago period.
• Major reasons for rising CAD was sharp rise in oil prices, and weakening rupee (imports become costlier). However both these factors are not that severe now and therefore CAD is projected to come down later in the year.

Current Account Deficit (CAD)

• CAD, is the difference between the inflow and outflow of foreign exchange. It reflects that the imports of goods, services and investment incomes into the economy outstripped the value of its exports.
• Current Account Deficit and Fiscal Deficit ( also known as "budget deficit", it is a situation when a nation's expenditure exceeds its revenues) are together are known as twin deficits and often both reinforce each other i.e. High fiscal deficit leads to higher CAD and vice versa.

Global Hackathon On Artificial Intelligence

• NITI Aayog in partnership with Perlin, a Singapore-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) startup has launched the ‘AI 4 All Global Hackathon’.
• Hackathon will invite developers, students, start-ups and companies to develop AI applications to make significant positive social and economic impact for India.
• With the vision to further expand the idea of ‘Artificial Intelligence, AI for All’ articulated in the National AI Strategy, NITI Aayog organises hackathons to source sustainable, innovative and technologically-enabled solutions to address various challenges in the development space.
• Earlier it had also organised ‘MoveHack’ , on the sidelines of the Global Mobility Summit 2018