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The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said as per its current assessment, the banking sector remained resilient and stable. Various parameters relating to capital adequacy, asset quality, liquidity, provision coverage and profitability are healthy.
Banks are also in compliance with the Large Exposure Framework (LEF) guidelines issued by the RBI,” it added, explaining that it was making the statement in the backdrop of media reports expressing concern about the exposures of Indian banks to a business conglomerate.
While the RBI did not name the conglomerate, the recent rout in Adani Group shares and the group’s decision to withdraw a ₹20,000 crore follow-on public offer a day after it had been fully subscribed, has triggered widespread concern about the group’s level of indebtedness and its ability to meet its debt obligations.
The RBI remains vigilant and continues to monitor the stability of the Indian banking sector. As the regulator and supervisor, the RBI maintains a constant vigil... on individual banks with a view to maintain financial stability.
States
The International Theatre Festival of Kerala to turn Thrissur into global stage (Page no. 5)
(GS Paper 1, Art and Culture)
Music, art, drama, dance and dialogue will light up the 13th edition of the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK). Making a resounding comeback after a two-year pandemic break, ITFoK is all set for a mega show that promises to turn Thrissur into a massive interactive stage from February 5 to 14.
With 10 international productions, 14 plays from across India, talks, discussions, workshops and art shows, the festival is a celebration of theatre and a unique meeting place for theatre-makers and theatre-goers.
Audiences can look forward to watching productions by famous theatre practitioners from Brett Bailey to Romeo Castellucci, and also listen to Indian thespians such as Naseeruddin Shah, Prakash Raj and M.K. Raina.
Deepan Sivaraman, a prominent contemporary theatre director, has curated the festival with B. Ananthakrishnan, dean of Sarojini Naidu School of Art, and veteran theatre-person Anuradha Kapur.
There are plays by contemporary legends such as Romeo Castellucci from Italy, Eugenio Barba from Denmark and Palestinian playwright and director Bashar Markus.
There are two plays for children – Hero Beauty, an opera from Taiwan, and Maya Bazaar, staged by Telangana-based Surabhi, the family-based theatre repertoire.
The grand finale will be Royston Abel’s magnus opus Manganiyar Seduction, which has toured 33 countries.
Editorial
Charge sheet scrutiny is not a case of prying eyes (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 2, Judiciary)
The highest court of India reached the almost last frontier of transparency in its agreeing to the live telecast of some of its hearings — a move warmly welcomed by activists clamouring for more openness in judicial proceedings.
The Chief Justice of India’s statement, that Supreme Court of India judgments will now be translated in four languages (Hindi, Gujarati, Odia and Tamil, as “the English language in its ‘legal avatar’ is not comprehensible to 99.9% of the citizens”) is another step towards making judicial processes more accessible.
Against this backdrop, a Supreme Court pronouncement on charge sheets appears to be retrograde. Here, the Court ruled that a charge sheet filed against an accused in a criminal case is not a ‘public document’ within the meaning of the Right to Information Act 2005 or the Indian Evidence Act — therefore, the demand that a charge sheet in a criminal case should be uploaded on to a public website as soon as it is filed in court was untenable.
The order was passed while disposing of a petition filed by a public interest litigant activist and journalist. It is a step that may be viewed as a setback for those pushing for greater transparency in the criminal justice administration as this has several implications as far as investigating officials and victims of crime are concerned.
On the face of it, the judgment seems to contradict an order passed by the Court where, in Youth Bar Association of India vs Union of India (2016), it directed that the First Information Report (FIR) in any case should be on the relevant investigating agency’s website within 24 hours of its registration.
This was for public perusal and appropriate action. But in the Court’s view now, the charge sheet (i.e., the Final Report specified by the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973) is on a footing different from the FIR, and hence cannot be shared with anyone other than the accused and the victim.
This was presumably because a charge sheet was a comprehensive account of the crime in question and had vital information such as a list of prosecution witnesses and documents in support of the investigating officer’s conclusions.
Though such material would become public knowledge during the trial, in the top court’s view, any action to part with details contained in these documents even before a trial begins would be detrimental to the accused and the victim.
The Court has observed that open publicity to what is contained in the final report is not within the scheme contemplated by the Code of Criminal Procedure.
Going green (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Environment)
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s latest Budget is noteworthy for the emphasis she has laid on the government’s commitment to move towards net-zero carbon emission by 2070.
As an article presented at the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in Davos last month notes, India holds the key to hitting global climate change targets given its sizeable and growing energy needs.
With the country’s population set to overtake China’s some time this year, India’s appetite for energy to propel the economy is set to surge exponentially.
The transition to green alternatives from the current reliance on fossil fuels is therefore an urgent imperative and an opportunity to leverage this move to catalyse new industries, generate jobs on a sizeable scale, and add to overall economic output.
In a nod to this, Budget 2023-24 devoted a fair amount of space to the green industrial and economic transition needed.
With the electric vehicle (EV) revolution poised to take off as every automobile major rolls out new EV models to tap demand, the availability of indigenously produced lithium-ion batteries has become a necessity, especially to lower the cost of EVs.
The Budget hearteningly proposes to exempt customs duty on the import of capital goods and machinery required to manufacture lithium-ion cells used in EV batteries. This ought to give a fillip to local companies looking to set up EV battery plants.
Opposition persists with its demand for probe into Adani row (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 2, Parliament)
Proceedings in both Houses of Parliament remained paralysed for the second day as the Opposition members persisted with their demand for a probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee into allegations of fraud made by U.S.-based short-seller Hindenburg Research against the Adani Group.
Opposition members in both the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha moved adjournment motions to discuss the issue as they alleged that public financial institutions such as the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and the State Bank of India (SBI) had become vulnerable because of their exposure to the group.
The Opposition’s stance was decided at a meeting convened by Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge in his chamber. Sixteen parties attended the meeting.
Soon after the Lok Sabha met for the day, the Opposition members were on their feet shouting slogans and demanding a probe into the tanking of the Adani Group stocks. They also demanded an investigation into the business practices of the corporate group.
Speaker Om Birla adjourned the House until 2 p.m. When the Lok Sabha met post-lunch, BJP member Rajendra Agarwal, who was in the Chair, allowed the laying of parliamentary papers amid sloganeering and then adjourned the House for the day.
The Rajya Sabha functioned for a total of 11 minutes as the Opposition continued to press for a debate on the impact of the Hindenburg findings on public sector banks.
Fifteen Opposition members moved a motion under Rule 267 demanding a debate on “frauds in investment by LIC, SBI, Public Sector banks and other financial institutions losing market value, endangering the hard earned savings of crores of Indians”.
Six of these notices were from the Congress, including one by Mr. Kharge. Members of the AAP, the CPI, the NCP and the BRS also moved similar notices.
Parliament adjourned for another day because Opposition demands a JPC on PM-linked Adani issue that is playing havoc on the savings of crores of Indians. Modi sarkar says MPs are wasting public money.
Govt. extends deadline for laggard solar scheme (Page no. 8)
(GS Paper 3, Energy)
The deadline for a key scheme by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to install 30,000 MW solar power capacity in rural India by 2022, has now been pushed to March 2026, Power Minister R.K. Singh told the Lok Sabha.
The Pradhan Mantri Kisan Urja Suraksha Evam Uttham Mahabhiyan (PM-KUSUM) has three parts: having farmers instal solar power plants worth 10,000 MW; installing 20 lakh solar-powered agriculture pumps that aren’t connected to the grid (off-grid), and converting 15 lakh agriculture pumps, already connected to the grid, into solar.
As of December 31, 2022, only 88.46 MW of solar capacity had been added; 181,058 solar pumps had been installed and 1,174 grid-connected pumps converted.