- India and Germany recently committed to doubling trade and expediting efforts to complete the India-European Union Free Trade Agreement (FTA) under negotiation.
- Negotiation Resumption: Talks resumed in 2022 after 8-years, talks stalled in 2013 due to market access disagreements.
- Objective: To finalize a comprehensive trade agreement covering goods, services, investments, and geographical indications.
- Negotiation Structure: The agreement will be concluded in two phases, following India's phased approach used in previous FTAs (e.g., with Australia).
- This is partly due to the volatile global trade environment, including US tariff actions. Read More
Home / Daily Current Affairs / 04-09-2025
Daily Current Affairs – 4 September, 2025
PDF - PM Modi launched the Bihar Rajya Jeevika Nidhi Saakh Sahkari Sangh Limited, highlighting that “empowered women are the foundation of Viksit Bharat.”
- Jeevika Nidhi is a state-level cooperative financial institution established to support women entrepreneurs in Bihar.
- Objective: To provide timely credit at lower interest rates, reducing dependence on microfinance institutions (MFIs) that charge 18%–24%.
- Membership: All registered cluster-level federations of Jeevika SHGs will be part of the Society.
- Financing: Both the Government of Bihar and the Central government will contribute funds. Read More
Empowered Women are Foundation of Viksit Bharat
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About Jeevika Nidhi Saakh Sahkari Sangh Limited
- Recently, the President of India underscored the transformative role of India’s banking sector in shaping the nation’s economic trajectory.
- India’s banking sector is a financial intermediary, primary conduit for credit delivery, liquidity modulation, financial inclusion, and serves as the operational backbone of macroeconomic management.
- Cooperative and Local Area Banks: Serve niche markets and rural populations.
- Development Financial Institutions: Such as NABARD, SIDBI, and IDBI, cater to agriculture, small industries, and infrastructure.
- Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs): Over 9,000 registered entities support credit delivery to underserved segments. Read More
Banking Industry: A Pillar of India’s Growth Story
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About the Banking Industry in India
- Majorana particles are seen as a potential solution to the problem of decoherence in quantum computers, offering inherently stable and noise-resistant qubits.
- Majorana particles, or Majorana fermions, are hypothesized particles that are their own antiparticles.
- Due to their self-antiparticle nature, they cannot carry an electric charge.
- In 1937, physicist Ettore Majorana proposed the existence of the Majorana Particle.
- No fundamental Majorana particle has been directly found yet, but scientists have created quasiparticles in special superconducting materials that behave like Majoranas. Read More
Majorana Particle
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Majorana Particle
- The Supreme Court recently directed the State Electricity Regulatory Commissions (SERCs) and distribution companies (DISCOMs) to clear their accumulated regulatory assets within a fixed timeframe.
- Regulatory assets are the unrecoverable revenue gap due to the difference between the average cost of supply (ACS), the expense incurred by a DISCOM to deliver a unit of electricity to consumers, and the Annual Revenue Requirement (ARR).
- ARR is the revenue collected by the DISCOM as consumer tariffs and subsidy payments from the government.
- Instead of immediately raising tariffs, regulators allow DISCOMs to carry forward these shortfalls and recover them from consumers at a later date.
- While this prevents sudden tariff hikes, it builds up hidden liabilities that burden both consumers and DISCOMs over time. Read More
Supreme Court Order on Regulatory Assets of DISCOM
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What are regulatory assets?
- Indian Navy ships INS Tir, INS Shardul, and Indian Coast Guard ship ICGS Sarathi, comprising the First Training Squadron (1TS), arrived in Seychelles.
- Seychelles is an archipelago of 115 islands.
- It is located east of Kenya and northeast of Madagascar.
- The capital, Victoria, is situated on the island of Mahé.
- It holds strategic importance for India due to its location along key maritime routes. Read More
