1. RBI’s panel suggests measures to strengthen core investment companies
- The Reserve Bank of India(RBI) panel to review the regulatory and Supervisory Framework for Core Investment Companies headed by Tapan Ray has submitted its report.
- CICs are non-banking financial companies with asset size of ?100 crore and above which carry on the business of acquisition of shares and securities, subject to certain conditions.
- CICs, which are allowed to accept public funds, hold not less than 90% of their net assets in the form of investment in equity shares, preference shares, bonds, debentures, debt or loans in group companies.
- Investments of CIC in the equity shares (including instruments compulsorily convertible into equity shares within a period not exceeding 10 years from the date of issue) in group companies constitutes not less than 60% of its net assets as mentioned in clause.
2. Real-time Train Information System(RTIS)
- Recently,500 passenger locomotives of the South Central Railway (SCR) have been fitted with the newly developed Real-time Train Information System (RTIS).
About Real-time Train Information System(RTIS):
- The system has been developed by the Centre for Railway Information Systems(CIRE) with the help of ISRO-Airports Authority of India’s GAGAN-Global Positioning System(GPS) aided geo-augmented navigation.
- The system is aimed at automatic transmission of speed and movement of trains to the central control office for improving the train control functions.
- The RTIS device uses GAGAN to transmit a signal to the control hubs.
- Passengers and freight customers will receive a more accurate information on train status when the train concerned is connected to a locomotive equipped with RTIS
- Low speed can be detected and intervention can be made to improve punctuality.
- Locomotor can send emergency messages to the control room with the push of a button.
- Unscheduled stoppages between the stations can be identified
3.Freedom on Net 2019 report
- The Freedom of Net report 2019 titled “The Crisis of Social Media” was released by the The Freedom House, an international watchdog.
About Freedom on the Net:
- Freedom on the Net is a comprehensive study of internet freedom in 65 nations across the globe.The report covers 87% of the world’s total internet users.
- The annual report tracks declines and improvement in internet freedom.It has chosen specific countries to represent diverse geographical regions.
- The report provides the overall scores to countries using a 21-question research methodology which addresses freedom of expression, internet access and privacy issues.
Key takeaways from the report:
- The report assessed 65 countries and 33 among them showed an overall decline in internet freedom since June 2018.Only 16 countries showed improvements in their internet freedom status.
- India was given an overall score of 55 in the report and the internet freedom status in the country was reported to be ‘partly free’.
- Iceland ranked the highest with an overall score of 95 as it had no civil or criminal cases registered against users for online expression during the coverage period.
- China with an overall score of 10 was adjudged ‘not free’ and as the world’s worst abuser of internet freedom for the fourth consecutive year.
- Pakistan was given a score of 26 and was declared ‘not free’ in internet freedom status for the 9th consecutive year.