Rapid Fire Current Affairs

MoU Between IREDA & MNRE

Recently, the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. (IREDA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), Government of India (GoI), setting an annual performance target for the year 2022-23.

The GoI has also set various performance-related key parameters such as Return on Net Worth (RoNW), Return on Capital Employed (ROCE), Non-Performing Assets (NPA) to Total Loans, Asset Turnover Ratio and Earning Per Share (EPS), etc.

Return on Equity (RoE) or RoNW: The amount of profit or earnings a company generates on the sheer strength of its shareholders’ equity.

ROCE: It refers to a financial ratio that can be used to assess a company's profitability and capital efficiency.

Asset Turnover Ratio: It measures the value of a company's sales or revenues relative to the value of its assets.

EPS: It is calculated as a company's profit divided by the outstanding shares of its common stock.

Caste Census in Bihar

Recently, the Supreme Court dismissed petitions challenging the Bihar government’s decision to conduct a caste survey in the state. Petitioners claimed that it was a census and that the state government had no power to make any laws regarding it. The subject of a census falls in the Union list and only Parliament can legislate on it.

The caste census is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Home Affairs: Registrar General of India (RGI) and Census Commissioner of India.

The origin of the Census in India goes back to the colonial exercise of 1881. Census has evolved and been used by the government, policymakers, academics, and others to capture the Indian population, access resources, map social change, delimitation exercises, etc. The Census provides a portrait of the Indian population, while the Socio-Economic and Caste Census (SECC) is a tool to identify beneficiaries of state support.

Hakku Patra

Recently, the Prime Minister of India symbolically distributed Hakku Patra (land title deeds) to five families of the Banjara (Lambani) community, a nomadic Scheduled Caste group, at an event organised by the state Revenue Department in Karnataka.

A title deed is a property ownership document, and the bearer of the document owns the land. The title deeds enable owners to avail of bank loans with the documentation. The government will also grant them the right to buy or sell land on which the title deed has been granted.

Read More: Banjara, Nomadic Tribes

Caller Name Presentation (CNAP)

According to the Telecom operators, a proposal by the Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI) of India to display callers’ names may result in privacy implications. The proposal, Caller Name Presentation (CNAP), will also be difficult to execute technically since many phones in the Indian market may not support it.

CNAP will allow users to know the identity of the person calling them. If people are aware of the person who is calling them, they can make an informed choice about those calls. Moreover, such a feature could potentially help in curbing harassment and other spam calls.

Currently, there are some applications that offer a similar service. However, all of them are third-party apps and depend on crowd-sourced data. There is no unifying solution offered by telecom operators.
Read more: Telecom Regulatory Authority (TRAI), Caller Name Presentation (CNAP)