Endeavor Careers Choicest Blogs: Weekly Current Affairs: December 2021, Week 01

Welcome to the Endeavor Editors’ Weekly Current Affairs Choicest Blog series. Get a weekly roundup – on news from business, economy, markets, policy, and more. A quick capsule format news summary and update to keep you abreast with all the latest current affairs.

1) International News and Global Economy

EU plans €300 billion infrastructure fund to counter China’s BRI

The European Commission has announced a plan to mobilise €300 billion ($340 billion) in public and private infrastructure investment around the world, a move seen as a response to China’s Belt and Road strategy. “Global Gateway will aim at mobilising investments of up to 300 billion euros between 2021 and 2027, bringing together resources of the EU, member states, European financial institutions and national development finance institutions,” a commission document said. The Global Gateway plan does not mention China’s rival and longer-standing international infrastructure strategy by name — but EU chief Ursula von der Leyen called it a “roadmap for major investment in infrastructure development around the world.” The money to be made available will not come from EU and member state coffers, and the plan will need funding from international institutions and from the private sector if it is to get anywhere near its target. The EU strategy is an offshoot of a plan by G7 countries to offer developing countries an alternative to the Belt and Road Initiative, presented in June at the industrial powers’ summit in Cornwall.

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EU unveils infrastructure plan to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative

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Israel urges hard line against Iran at nuclear talks

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett urged world powers to take a hard line against Iran in negotiations aimed at reviving an international nuclear deal, as his top defence and intelligence officials headed to Washington to discuss the flailing talks. Israel has been watching with concern as world powers sit down with Iran in Vienna in hopes of restoring the tattered 2015 deal. Iran last week struck its own hard line as talks resumed in Vienna, suggesting everything discussed in previous rounds of diplomacy could be renegotiated. Continued Iranian advances in its atomic program have further raised the stakes in talks that are crucial to cooling years of tensions in the wider Mideast. The original deal, spearheaded by then-President Barack Obama, gave Iran much-needed relief from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear activities. But then-President Donald Trump, with strong encouragement from Israel, withdrew from the deal in 2018, causing it to unravel. Prominent voices in Israel are now indicating the U.S. withdrawal, especially without a contingency plan for Iran’s continuously developing nuclear plan, was a blunder. But Israel’s new government has maintained a similar position as former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, rejecting a return to the original deal and calling for diplomacy to be accompanied by military pressure on Iran.

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Israel PM warns against Iran ‘nuclear blackmail’

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Indonesia’s Semeru volcano erupts, spews huge ash cloud

The highest volcano on Indonesia’s most densely populated island of Java spewed thick columns of ash high into the sky on December 4, triggering panic among people living nearby. There were no immediate reports of casualties. Mount Semeru’s sudden eruption in Lumajang district in East Java province left several villages around its slopes blanketed with falling ash. The eruption was accompanied by a thunderstorm and rain, which pushed lava and smouldering debris and formed thick mud that destroyed at least one bridge connecting two main villages of Pronojiwo and Candipuro, as well as hampering the evacuation, Lumajang district head Thoriqul Haq told TVOne.

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Pakistan receives a $3 billion loan from Saudi Arabia

Pakistan on December 4 received a $3 billion loan from Saudi Arabia, the Prime Minister’s finance adviser said, as part of an economic support package. The South Asian country has faced growing economic challenges, with high inflation, sliding forex reserves, a widening current account deficit and a depreciating currency. Pakistan’s total liquid foreign reserves stand at $22,498 billion, based on central bank data. The loan from Saudi Arabia will be for one year at a 4% interest rate under the terms of the package, which was signed last month. The loan comes a week after the International Monetary Fund agreed with Pakistan on measures needed to revive a stalled $6 billion funding programme. The completion of the review, pending since earlier this year, would make available $750 million in IMF special drawing rights, or around $1 billion, bringing total disbursements so far to about $3 billion.

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Pakistan gets $3 billion from Saudi Arabia amid crisis as Imran Khan fails to sway IMF for easy aid

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Tensions rise over Russian border build-up

Russia has been building up its military forces close to the Ukrainian border. According to Ukrainian officials and those in Western nations, Moscow has amassed more than 92,000 troops around 300 km from the Russian border with the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. This territory is a conflict zone where Ukraine has been battling Russia-backed separatists. While Ukraine and the West have accused Russia of preparing for an invasion, Russia has, in turn, accused the West of ‘anti-Russia’ hysteria. With tensions escalating, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken warned that Washington will be “prepared to act” if Russia invades Ukraine. Russian foreign ministers Sergei Lavrov and Blinken were scheduled to hold talks on December 2 on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Stockholm.

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Tensions run high on the Ukrainian and Russian border

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China launches its first cross-border BRI train with Laos

China has launched the first cross-border train of its multi-billion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) from Laos, which Beijing says will help the small and only landlocked country in South East Asia turn into a land-linked hub, boost regional connectivity and supply chain resilience. Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Laos’ counterpart Thongloun Sisoulith jointly witnessed the opening of the China-Laos railway via video link. The first train of the China-Laos Railway left Vientiane soon after the cross-border railway was officially put into operation, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Besides China, Laos shares borders with Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia which offered Beijing to extend the train project to those countries. This is the first cross-border project under the BRI, China’s multibillion-dollar project in different countries with Chinese investments enhancing Beijing’s global influence. Billed as a showpiece of Laos’ participation in the BRI, the railway has 11 stations on the Chinese section and 10 on the 409-kilometer Laos section. The railway will shorten travel between Vientiane and the China-Laos border from two days to just three hours, and the trip from Vientiane to Kunming can be done overnight.

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EU cracks down on unvaccinated

Even before the shock emergence of the omicron variant, Europe’s coronavirus battle was on shaky ground. Cases surging at a record pace, hospitalisations and deaths on the rise – it’s setting up to be a nightmare winter for the continent yet again. The omicron mutation has added an extra layer of uncertainty, but the continent’s immediate problem is grappling with the wave of infections that’s already put countries back into lockdown. Germany’s government has become the latest to ramp up its response. Austria has already proposed mandatory vaccinations, while other countries plan to fine those who refuse. The drastic steps are a response to a drastic situation. In Austria, seven-day cases topped 1,100 per 100,000 people at one point. That’s eight times the average over the preceding three months. Figures have been less dramatic elsewhere, though the trend has been up in many countries, including Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Greece.

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Omicron plunges the world into collective uncertainty

Omicron has reached more than 40 countries, although most of the cases so far have been found in arriving travellers. According to scientists in South Africa, omicron appears to spread faster than any other variant, thanks to a combination of contagiousness and an ability to dodge the body’s immune defences. But the contribution of each factor is not yet certain. International concern has not waited for a fuller picture to take shape. The World Health Organization acted with alacrity. In an emergency meeting the day after South Africa flagged the variant, WHO labelled omicron a “variant of concern,” its most serious category, a distinction it shares with the delta variant. The discovery of omicron prompted a swift reconsideration of the need for booster shots. On Monday, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention strengthened its guidance by urging all eligible adults to get their third shot. Vaccine makers said they were confident they could tailor existing formulas to defend against the variant, but the process was expected to take months. Scientists in South Africa reported an increase in reinfections in people who already had a bout of COVID, suggesting that the variant could overcome natural immunity.

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World responds to new Omicron Covid variant

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2) Climate

Quest begins to drill Antarctica’s oldest ice

Efforts are about to get underway to drill a core of ice in Antarctica that contains a record of Earth’s climate stretching back 1.5 million years. A European team will set up its equipment at one of the highest locations on the White Continent, for an operation likely to take four years. The project aims to recover a near-3km-long cylinder of frozen material. Scientists hope this ice can help them explain why Earth’s ice ages flipped in frequency in the deep past.  The deep ice in Antarctica contains tiny bubbles of air. These little gas pockets are a direct snapshot of the historic atmosphere. Scientists can read off the levels of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping components, such as methane. Analysing the atoms in the water-ice molecules encasing the gases also gives an indication of the temperature that persisted at the time of the snowfall that gave rise to the ice.

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COP26: UK ‘nowhere near’ meeting targets agreed at Glasgow climate summit

The UK is “nowhere near” meeting emissions targets enshrined at the Glasgow climate summit; official advisers have warned. The Climate Change Committee (CCC) says that, at current rates, the UK will be contributing to a disastrous temperature rise of 2.7C by 2100. It says this could – in theory – be brought down to just under 2C. But this could only happen if ministers agree to tougher policies and if other nations slash emissions too. The government insists that it will meet all its climate change targets. Scientists say any temperature rise approaching 2C is extremely dangerous, so green groups want the UK to improve its emissions targets. But the CCC says Britain will set a better example to the world if it keeps the same targets but actually delivers them through stronger policies. It maintains that the government must nudge people towards greener lifestyles, and must tackle emissions from farming more aggressively. The committee’s chief executive, Chris Stark, said: “The government is nowhere near achieving current targets.

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3) India  

Covid update   

1 crore Covid vaccine shots on December 5, India crosses halfway mark in full dose

Half of the eligible population in the country is now fully vaccinated, with over 1.03 crores being administered on 5th. Around 21.38 crore unutilised doses are still available with states. More than 10 lakh vaccination doses were administered Saturday in Bihar (15.33 lakh), Tamil Nadu (14.84 lakh), Rajasthan (10.8 lakh) and Uttar Pradesh (10.24 lakh), amidst the government’s push for vaccination in the light of the new Omicron variant. In total, 85% of the eligible adult population has now received the first dose, while 50.35% are fully vaccinated. India’s active caseload as of 5 December, stood at 99,974, the lowest since March 2020. The daily positivity rate has remained below 2% for the last 61 days, and under 1% for 20 days.

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India’s Omicron tally reaches 21 with 9 cases detected in Rajasthan, 7 more in Maharashtra

The total number of positive cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant in India has reached 21 with nine new cases detected in Rajasthan and seven more in Maharashtra on Sunday. Four members of a family and five others have tested positive for the Omicron variant of coronavirus, an official from the Rajasthan government stated. Health Secretary Vaibhav Galriya said the genome sequencing of their swab samples confirmed it. He said the family members had recently returned from South Africa. Most of those who tested positive either recently arrived from African countries or were in contact with such people. With this, four states and the national capital have now reported cases of the potentially more contagious variant which has sparked a fresh alert across the world. In another important development, the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation is scheduled to meet on December 6 to deliberate the issue of administering an ‘additional’ dose of COVID-19 vaccine to immunocompromised individuals.

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 Myths, fears, science & reality as India finds its first Omicron cases

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Other update

Cyclone Jawad: Rain lashes Kolkata, other parts of south Bengal

The West Bengal government stopped ferry services on the Hooghly River and urged tourists not to visit seaside resorts, as rain lashed Kolkata and other southern parts of the state on Sunday with cyclonic storm Jawad laying centred 180 km from Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The India Meteorological Department forecast that the cyclonic storm will move north-eastwards towards the West Bengal coast before weakening into a deep depression during the day. The IMD predicted that wind speed will not exceed 55 kmph in coastal areas as the system approaches West Bengal. The West Bengal government has evacuated around 17,900 people from coastal areas of South 24 Parganas and Purba Medinipur and opened 48 relief centres in the two districts, another official said. The administration has also opened 115 multipurpose cyclone shelters and 135 additional temporary relief shelters to deal with any “emergency-like situation”, he said.

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Cyclone Jawad: Thousands Evacuated

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Nagaland: Locals vandalise Assam Rifles camp to protest the killing of 13 civilians, one more dead

A day after six civilians were killed by the security forces in what they said was a case of “mistaken identity”, the situation continued to be tense in Nagaland’s Mon district on Sunday. In the operation and the clashes that ensued with the security forces later, 13 civilians were killed on Saturday. On Sunday, authorities said that a large crowd of angry villagers gathered in Mon town and marched to the Assam Rifles camp, engaging in vandalism. The security forces opened fire, leading to the death of one more civilian. “They engaged in vandalism, destruction and set fire to some buildings. The security forces opened fire, which led to the death of one civilian. Six civilians were killed in the operation in Tiru area of Mon district on Saturday evening when security forces allegedly mistook them for militants and fired on them. This led to clashes later, in which seven civilians and one security personnel were killed.

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A primer on Nagaland, India’s oldest insurgency as crisis erupts with Mon killings

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4) Economy

India’s services sector activity in November registers second-fastest pace of growth since July 2011: Survey

India’s services sector activity expanded at the second-fastest pace in more than a decade during November, driven by a sustained rise in new work and improvement in market conditions, a monthly survey said. The seasonally adjusted India Services Business Activity Index was at 58.1 in November, fractionally down from 58.4 in October. The November figure points to the second-fastest rise in output since July 2011. For the fourth straight month, the services sector witnessed an expansion in output. In Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) parlance, a print above 50 means expansion while a score below 50 denotes contraction. “The recovery of the Indian service sector was extended to November, with a robust improvement in sales enabling the second-fastest rise in business activity in nearly ten-and-a-half years,” Pollyanna De Lima, Economics Associate Director at IHS Markit, said. Although companies forecast higher business activity volumes over the course of the coming year, the expansion is expected to be restricted by price pressures.

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GDP grew 8.4% in Q2, but recovery appears patchy

India’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew by 8.4% in the July to September quarter, compared to a 7.4% contraction a year ago, with the economy’s gross value added (GVA) rising 8.5%, the National Statistical Office said on Tuesday. Factoring in the first-quarter GDP growth of 20.1%, the first half of this year has recorded 13.7% growth and India is likely to record double-digit growth for 2021-22 as a whole, the Finance Ministry’s Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Krishnamurthy Subramanian said, seeking to emphasise that the recovery process is continuing to play out. Economists, however, were not fully convinced about the extent and durability of this recovery and reacted with caution. Though the absolute GDP in the second quarter (Q2) was 0.3% higher than pre-pandemic levels, there were still many worrying areas, particularly the insipid private consumption spending that still languished below pre-covid levels along with activity in employment intensive sectors like construction and contact-intensive sectors like retail and hotels.

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5) Markets, Banking and Finance

RBI new norms likely to increase NBFCs bad loans by one-third: Study

The recent clarification by the Reserve Bank of India on non-performing advances (NPA) may increase non-banking financial companies’ (NBFC) bad loans by one-third, says a report. Last month, the RBI had provided clarification on income recognition asset classification and provisioning (IRAC) norms for banks, NBFCs and All-India Financial Institutions.  The clarification included classification of special mention account (SMA) and NPA on a day-end position basis and upgrade from an NPA to standard category only after clearance of all outstanding overdues. “The RBI’s clarification on non-performing advances (NPAs) accounting is likely to increase NPAs by around one-third for non-banking finance companies (NBFCs),” domestic rating agency India Ratings and Research said in a report on Friday. However, the impact on provisioning could be modest, given NBFCs are using Indian Accounting Standards (IND-AS) and generally, for higher rated NBFCs, provision policy is more conservative than IRAC requirements. The report said the RBI circular also calls for daily stamping of accounts to count the number of days they are overdue instead of a monthly or quarterly stamping.

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RBI makes rules for NBFCs stricter, Here’s an analysis

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 6) Business

Hero Electric aims to raise fresh funds of $200-$300 million; looking to tap PE funds

Six months after closing the first part of its Series B funding round, India’s largest electric two-wheeler maker Hero Electric is evaluating plans to raise fresh capital as demand soars in a booming EV market, as reported by Moneycontrol. In June, Hero Electric raised around $30 million from Gulf Islamic Investments and existing investor OAKS Asset Management (formerly Alpha Capital). Back then, the firm had said the funding would be used to expand its production capacity, consolidate its position in the market, invest in new technologies and enhance its footprint across markets like India. In response to an email query from Moneycontrol, Naveen Munjal, MD, Hero Electric said, “Hero Electric had recently in the month of June, 2021 closed its first part of Series B funding to expand capacity and invest in newer technologies. The Indian EV industry is currently witnessing its best growth phase owing to conducive policies and rising fuel prices, thereby leading to phenomenal growth in customer demand.” Munjal added, “For any company to scale and meet market demand seeking investments are a continuous process. As a market leader and the No. 1 EV brand, Hero is committed to leading the EV transformation in the country and growing as the segment grows.”

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Vodafone confirms filing for retro tax dispute settlement with India

Vodafone Group has filed an application with the government to settle its ?20,000-crore retrospective tax dispute. This is a significant step towards resolving its long-standing issue, as both parties had been at loggerheads in local and international courts. “We can confirm we have filed an application. We have always been confident that no tax liability arose in respect of our acquisition of the Indian business, and this was borne out by the decisions of the Supreme Court of India and the International Court of Arbitration,” the UK-based telecom company said in a statement, its first with respect to the matter. ET reported on December 3 that the telco had filed the application, indicating an end to the simmering retrospective tax battle. The government has promised to refund taxes already collected and withdraw all litigation and arbitration. In return, companies will have to give an undertaking that they will withdraw litigation at all forums, and will forgo any damages, interest or other costs. Companies will also have to forego any future claims.

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Work underway to set up EV charging stations at 22,000 of 70,000 petrol pumps in the country: Govt

Work is underway to set up charging stations for electric vehicles at 22,000 of the 70,000 petrol pumps across the country, the government has informed Rajya Sabha. Replying to supplementary during the Question Hour, Heavy Industries Minister Mahendra Nath Pandey said the first priority would be to set up such charging stations for electric vehicles at express highways, highways and populated cities. He also said the government under the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India)-II scheme has directed the ARAI in Pune, an institution working in the field of automobiles, to develop a prototype for fast charging of electric vehicles. The aim is to have it in the market by December 2022, Pandey said. He said work is underway on this project and he hopes that the prototype would be prepared by October or November of next year.

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7) Technology

Samhita-CGF, Mswipe, USAID & Mastercard come together to digitize 100,000 micro-merchants

Mastercard has announced a strategic partnership with Samhita-Collective Good Foundation (Samhita-CGF), a social impact organization, and Mswipe, an end-to-end digital enabler for MSMEs, to bring 100,000 micro-merchants from the bottom of the pyramid into the digital economy. Under this partnership, Mastercard and Mswipe will join the REVIVE Alliance, a blended finance platform by Samhita-CGF, supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other funders, that supports informal workers and micro-enterprises whose livelihoods have been affected during the pandemic. This partnership supports the Government’s agenda for public-private partnerships to accelerate inclusive economic growth. Till date, the REVIVE Alliance has reached over 15,000 MSMEs. This partnership will enable REVIVE Alliance to combine a targeted digital payments incentive program with capacity building training to help micro-merchants kickstart their digital journey and drive permanent behaviour change.

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India looking forward to leveraging digital payments stack; in talks with regulators globally: NPCI

India is looking forward to leveraging the stack it has built in the digital payments space and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is reaching out to many countries to help them build their own payment systems, its MD & CEO Dilip Asbe said on Friday. Different countries need to build their local stacks as every country has its own local diversity, plans and complexities, he said while speaking at the InFinity Forum 2021 being organised by IFSCA and Bloomberg virtually. “We at NPCI strongly believe that every country should have its own stack. India has also started looking at supporting the world around. We work with BIS (Bank of International Settlements), we work with the World Bank. “We are reaching out to many countries and we have reached out to as many as 50-60 regulators of other countries’ governments through the Indian missions. And we really want to leverage the stack which we have built with a lot of effort,” Asbe said

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upGrad set to acquire Talentedge for Rs 350-400 crore

upGrad, the online higher education company co-owned by Ronnie Screwvala, is set to acquire Talentedge, India’s fourth-largest online higher education company, for around Rs 350-400 crore. upGrad has entered into an exclusive agreement to acquire Arrina Education Services, the holding company of Talentedge Education Ventures, in what will be one of the larger consolidations in the Indian higher education space. “We are leaders by far in the higher education space in India,” Screwvala, chairperson of upGrad, told ET. “Currently, we are twice as much as the next player, but we want to grow the gap to 4X before we branch out.” “Talentedge has meticulously built a strong business over the last decade and stayed the course in this space where most did not survive, and we are very pleased to welcome them at upGrad as we build one of the largest EdTech companies in the world,” Screwvala said.

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WhatsApp inches close to Super App goal

Among the super app contenders in India, WhatsApp has arguably the best shot at success. It has a massive user base, is the default first app for most new smartphone users and now it has a bevy of integrations to leverage in the super app journey. In December 2020, Meta-owned WhatsApp sounded out its focus on offering a broad range of financial products for India such as microcredit, health insurance and pension plans. This was said to be part of the company’s plans to turn into a super app for a slew of services, primarily built around WhatsApp Payments. Now, one year later, this plan is beginning to firm up. While the company’s payments service has been up and running since the beginning of 2021, it’s only now that the various pieces in the super app puzzle are beginning to fit in. It all began with Reliance Jio and the JioMart integration. Last week, the company was allowed to increase its payments user base to 40 Mn users, a 2X bump from its existing limit of 20 Mn users. While the company only has around 2 Mn users for its payments service at the moment, it looks like the company will add more services as this base expands.  For WhatsApp, the payments vertical is critical in its super app plans. It spent millions in litigations and court cases in the run-up to the launch of the payments service and now that it is beginning to see the green shoots in the form of user growth, the messaging giant will capitalise on this momentum. The biggest hurdle for WhatsApp will be its patchy history when it comes to user privacy and data security. For instance, the company’s much-maligned privacy policy or the Pegasus spyware which have made some users nervous about the sanctity of communications on the app. For now, though, WhatsApp seems quietly confident about its chances in the super app pool, even if other players are threatening to make a splash themselves. Will WhatsApp’s massive 530 Mn-strong user base prove the trump card?

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What is a super app, and why haven’t they gone global?

The super app, synonymous with popular mobile apps like WeChat, Grab, GoTo and Paytm, has enjoyed noteworthy success in Asian countries, but is relatively absent in other markets. CNBC’s Nessa Anwar, joined by Arjun Kharpal, explains the strategies and evolution behind the world’s biggest super apps.

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 8) Politics

Development projects in Uttarakhand part of countrywide connectivity ‘mahayagya’: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday kick-started the BJP’s election campaign in Uttarakhand, inaugurating or laying foundations of projects worth over Rs 18,000 crore and asserting a connectivity “mahayagya” is underway across the country to make up for the loss of 10 years of the previous government. He said the projects whose foundation stones were laid in Uttarakhand on Saturday cover almost all sectors, including a Delhi-Dehradun economic corridor which will reduce the duration of journey between the two cities to half, the country’s largest elevated wildlife corridor, child friendly city project and a new bridge next to Lakshman Jhoola in Rishikesh. “Uttarakhand’s development is the highest priority of the double engine government. We have sanctioned development projects worth over Rs 1 lakh crore for the state,” Modi said.

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9) Sports

India vs New Zealand: Kiwis bowled out at 62, becomes lowest Test total by any team against India

After being bundled out at 62, New Zealand registered the lowest total by any team against India in Tests. This is the lowest total by any team against India in Tests. It is also the lowest total by any team in India. For India, Ravichandran Ashwin and Mohammed Siraj were the picks for bowling as they scalped three and four wickets respectively. The match also captured another historic moment when Ajaz Patel took all 10 wickets in India’s first innings and became the third bowler in the history of the game to achieve this feat.

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Sindhu wins silver in BWF World Tour Finals

Indian badminton ace P V Sindhu settled for a silver medal at the BWF World Tour Finals after going down meekly against Korean teen sensation An Seyoung in the summit clash, here on Sunday. Sindhu, the reigning world champion and two-time Olympic medallist, could neither match the pace nor breach the defence of the world number six Korean, losing 16-21 12-21 in the 40-minute lop-sided clash. It was Sindhu’s third successive loss, all straight games, to the Korean in as many meetings. With this victory, An Seyoung became the first-ever South Korean woman to win the season-ending title.

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India curtails tour of South Africa, T20Is to be played later; departure delayed by one week

The Indian cricket team’s tour of South Africa will go ahead but the team’s departure has been postponed by a week and T20 Internationals are no longer a part of the schedule, the two boards announced, ending the speculation surrounding the series after a new COVID-19 variant triggered anxiety. The four T20s will be played at a later date and Cricket South Africa said it will confirm the venues for the new schedule in the next 48 hours. India is scheduled to play three Tests and three ODIs during the tour.

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Women’s Tennis Association suspends tournaments in China over Peng Shuai concerns

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has announced the immediate suspension of all tournaments in China due to concerns about the well-being of former doubles world number one Peng Shuai and the safety of other players. The U.S.-headquartered tour’s decision to walk away from one of its biggest markets was applauded by many leading figures in the tennis world but could cost the WTA hundreds of millions of dollars in broadcasting and sponsorship revenue. The decision comes as Beijing is preparing to host the Winter Olympics next February. Global rights groups and others have called for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics over China’s human rights record.

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 10) Opinion

Is Crypto Trading in India headed for a ban?

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 Addressing the need-gaps: How fintechs can make deeper inroads in rural India

Most digital transactions in India are concentrated in urban centres. With only 28% of rural India boasting access to internet-enabled smartphones and a low level of digital literacy among rural residents, India’s rural heartland is not part of India’s fintech revolution. Despite making up 70% of India’s population, the people living in rural areas are the most underserved when it comes to accessing the fintech services. However, the picture of India’s financial inclusion landscape is not completely gloomy. All it shows is that India is yet to tap into its full potential to accelerate its advance to become a cashless economy. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently urged the Indian Banks Association to increase the presence of banking services in rural India, encouraging the banks to decide where they need to be physically present and where digital services can be extended. A lack of infrastructure is one of the key challenges that the government has aimed to address through initiatives such as the PM’s Digital India program and Bharat Net Project.

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Inflationary pressures point to monetary policy normalisation: HSBC

With inflation set to remain elevated closer to the upper band of the Reserve Bank of India’s tolerance levels, irrespective of any changes the Omicron COVID-19 variant may trigger in the economy, the central bank may be on course towards monetary policy normalisation according to a report by HSBC economists. Three forces are likely to push CPI inflation over the next few months. Besides elevated energy and services prices, compressed margins will trigger more pass-through by manufacturers who are seeing a big fall in margins, which in turn could add to inflation. “As the base normalises, it could average an elevated 5.5-6% between December and April. And we believe these elevated prints will emerge irrespective of any changes the Omicron COVID-19 variant may trigger in the economy” said Pranjul Bhandari, chief India economist at HSBC Securities and Capital Markets. “All of this points towards monetary policy normalisation”.

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Road to net-zero lies via digital supply chain transformation

The Glasgow Climate Pact has made it clear that there is a universal mandate to get to net-zero emissions. However, each country will have its own timelines and trajectories. Through their regulatory mandates, governments will start clearing out carbon content from the supply chain, making space for green alternatives. Manufacturers will have to roll out innovative solutions with speed and scale to cash in on the opportunities. Transition to net-zero will have to balance sustainable environmental protection with economic considerations. India stands at the cusp of a major supply chain reconfiguration and the most efficient transition is through digital transformation. Supply chains are subject to the bullwhip effect, where changes and errors accumulated upstream keep amplifying as we travel downstream. The way to accommodate this characteristic of supply chains is to develop digital solutions which allow flexible reallocation of resources and costs in response to real-time carbon emissions. A single digital operating system for the supply chain can enable sharing of data on carbon emissions and costs of sustainable alternatives among the participants.

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India might have a tech workforce of 9-10 million in the next few years: Nilekani

It’s a no-brainer that the digital acceleration in India because of the Covid-19 has created tremendous growth opportunities for India’s technology companies. Holding the same thought, Nandan Nilekani, non-executive chairman of Infosys said that the number of people working in IT services and the BPO industry is estimated to double in the next couple of years to around 9-10 million. “There’s a huge amount of activity in the start-up ecosystem and it’s estimated that the number of people in the IT services and BPO industry are about 4.5 million, and that is expected to double in the next several years. Imagine, it took us about 14 years to get to about 4.5 million people, but doubling that to 9-10 million will happen in maybe a decade,” he said at ASCENT eConclave.

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Prolonged waiting period due to semiconductor shortage can have a negative impact on vehicle demand: Maruti

Longer waiting periods with semiconductor shortages affecting production can have a negative impact on car demand, although the supply constraints of chips have gradually improved over the last few months, according to a senior official of car market leader Maruti Suzuki India. “The bookings show that the demand continues to be quite robust, both in terms of inquiries and the bookings, but now availability is an issue and waiting periods have gone up,” Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) Senior Executive Director (Marketing & Sales) Shashank Srivastava. Stating that the supply constraint due to the semiconductor shortage has improved, Srivastava said, “If you look at the availability of electronic components, this is affecting the production since August and onwards. The situation is getting a little better — September was 40 per cent of the planned production, October was 60 per cent, November was about 83-84 per cent and December, as we have stated it will be about 80 to 85 per cent”. While things are improving, he said when it will become normal is going to take some more time but it is difficult to predict because the global supply chain is involved.

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11) Weekly special

How CoinDCX navigated an early RBI ban and nascent market to become India’s first crypto unicorn

IIT Bombay alum Neeraj Khandelwal and Sumit Gupta had started CoinDCX with the idea of bringing different decentralised marketplaces and cryptocurrencies on to a single platform. The duo focused on developing a product that allowed traders to swiftly trade cryptocurrency, with security and ease. The RBI ban resulted in challenges such as INR gateways and liquidity. But the tide has turned since then. In conversation with YourStory Founder and CEO Shradha Sharma, Sumit Gupta and Neeraj Khandelwal, Co-founders of cryptocurrency start-up CoinDCX, talk about their journey – from starting up almost alongside an RBI ban on crypto transactions to entering the unicorn club.

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12) Did you know?

How has Barbados become the newest republic? What does this political transformation mean?

The Caribbean Island nation of Barbados has turned a page in history, declaring itself a republic, a move that coincides with the 55th anniversary of its independence from Britain. The country of some 3,00,000 citizens ceases to be a constitutional monarchy and will not pledge allegiance to the Queen. This is the first time since the 1970s that a Caribbean state has become a republic. An important milestone in Bridgetown’s long journey was a 2005 decision to drop the privy council in London as its final court of appeal, in preference for the Caribbean Court of Justice in Trinidad.

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Barbados breaks away from the Queen, becomes a republic

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With that, we come to an end for our Weekly Current Affairs December 2021 -Week 1. Hope you have liked it. Write your feedback in the comments below and let us know if there is anything else you would like us to cover.

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