About: Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

An exchange-traded fund can be seen as a basket of underlying assets, such as shares, bonds, commodities and indices, that are pooled together into a single entity.


It divides ownership of these assets into shares, which are later sold on the open market. Each share of an ETF gives its owner a proportional stake in the total assets of the fund.

Briefly, Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are like mutual funds listed and traded on stock exchanges like shares.

Usually, ETFs are passive funds where the fund manager doesn’t select stocks on your behalf. Instead, the ETF simply copies an index and endeavours to accurately reflect its performance.

In an ETF, one can buy and sell units at prevailing market price on a real time basis during market hours.

The ETFs trading value is based on the net asset value of the underlying stocks that it represents.

ETFs are offered on virtually all asset classes ranging from traditional investments to alternative assets like commodities or currencies.

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India has appointed diplomat T S Tirumurti, currently serving as Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, as its Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

The first Indian delegates at the United Nations included statesman Arcot Ramasamy Mudaliar, and freedom fighters Hansa Mehta, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, and Lakshmi Menon.

India and the UN:

India was among the select members of the United Nations that signed the United Nations Declaration at Washington on January 1, 1942.

What are Masala Bonds?



They are bonds issued outside India by an Indian entity or corporate. These bonds are issued in Indian currency than local currency. 

Indian corporates usually issue Masala Bonds to raise funds from foreign investors. As it is pegged into Indian currency, if the rupee rates fall, investors bear the risk.

The first Masala bond was issued in 2014 by IFC for the infrastructure projects in India.

India INX is the country’s first international exchange, located at International Financial Services Centre, GIFT City in Gujarat.

 In simpler words, as Masala Bonds are rupee-denominated bonds, the risk goes directly to the investor.

Who is eligible to invest in Masala bonds?
Investors from outside of India who would like to invest in Indian assets can invest in Masala bonds. Indian entities like HDFC, NTPC and Indiabulls Housing have raised funds via Masala Bonds.

Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)

• The CDS is a high military office that oversees and coordinates the working of the three Services, and offers seamless tri-service views and single-point advice to the Executive (in India’s case, to the Prime Minister) on long-term defence planning and management, including manpower, equipment and strategy, and above all, “jointsmanship” in operations.


Summary
• A new structure is created in the Defence Ministry and General Bipin Rawat took over as the first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).
• CDS is a ‘dual-hatted role’ which refers to the two hats the CDS wears: one of the permanent Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee which has the three service chiefs as members, and the other of the head of the newly created Department of Military Affairs (DMA) in the ministry.
• The former is a military role while the latter is a role in the government; it is as the head of DMA that his major responsibilities within the ministry will be discharged.

Other Details:
• The ministry already had four departments:
1. Department of Defence
2. Department of Defence Production
3. Department of Defence Research and Development
4. Department of Ex-servicemen Welfare
• Each of them is headed by a Secretary, with the Department of Defence being the nerve centre of the ministry, looking after all issues pertaining to the armed forces, defence policy and procurement.
• The charter of duties of the DMA was so far looked after by the Department of Defence, which is headed by the Defence Secretary who is also the secretary in-charge of the Defence Ministry.
• Work exclusively pertaining to military matters will fall within the purview of the DMA while the Department of Defence will deal with larger issues pertaining to defence of the country. To give an illustrative example, this means that while tri-service military training institutions will fall under the DMA, organisations like IDSA and NDC whose remit is broader than military matters will fall under the Department of Defence.

Useful for  paper GS lll - Environment Conservation, Environment pollution and degradation and Environmental impact assessment



Context :- 

On December 10, 2019, at the COP25, the Climate Change Performance Index was presented.

The Index measures renewable energy share, emissions and climate policies of 57 countries and the European Union.

Highlights: India

India ranked 9th in the ranking provided. The ranking was to the “high category”, where the countries have ambitious 2030 targets.

The report noted that India received medium rating in the renewable energy category. Also, the 2030 target set by India was rated high for its well-below 2-degree Celsius compatibility.

The report also says that India is yet to develop a road map to phase-out fossil fuel subsidies in order to reduce the dependence on fossil fuels.

Highlights: World :- 

China, one of the largest polluters improved in its ranking and was placed in medium category.

US and Saudi Arabia were the major polluters. They hardly showed signs of reducing their green house gas emissions. US ranked the last followed by Saudi Arabia and Australia.

According to the report, 31 of the 57 high emitting countries are responsible for 90% of emissions.

Some of the EU countries like Sweden (ranked 4th), Denmark (ranked 5th) were the highest achievers in terms of performance.

Among the G20 countries, only India and UK were ranked in the high category.

Source :- The Hindu