• National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) has published draft requirements for auditors to prepare and publish annual transparency reports to increase transparency in management and governance of audit firms.

About National Financial Reporting Authority

• NFRA was constituted in 2018 under section 132(1) of Companies Act, 2013.
• It is an independent regulator to oversee auditing profession and accounting standards with jurisdiction extending to all listed companies and large unlisted companies.
• It has same powers as a Civil Court while trying a suit.

It consists of a chairperson who will be appointed by Central Government and a maximum of 15 members.

• Central University of Himachal Pradesh (CUHP), Dharamsala, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indiana University, Pennsylvania (IUP), USA. The partnership will focus on academic and research collaboration between the two universities.
• Vice-Chancellor (V-C) of CUHP said the universities would make efforts to work on joint and collaborative research projects with emphasis on faculty sharing and student exchange aspects.
• The universities will identify certain vital themes for undertaking collaborative projects, especially in the field of science, tourism, public policy, teacher education, management, journalism and media

• The 600-year-old Mata Ashapuri Temple situated on the Dhauladhar mountains is in a state of neglect. Situated on the hilltop and surrounded by green hills, the temple provides an eye-catching view of the snow-covered peaks of the Dhauladhars. The ancient temple is visited by thousands of domestic and foreign pilgrims and tourists every year.
• It is believed to be one of the temples where the Pandvas stayed during their exile period when they visited the Himalayan ranges.

Bad state of affairs

• The temple structure is currently in a bad shape. The stairs leading to the temple complex need immediate repair. Locals have been contributing money for its repair and maintenance every year, but still a lot more needs to be done for its upkeep. The narrow road leading to the temple is also prone to accidents.
• The Department of Language, Art and Culture, is responsible for the upkeep of all historical temples in the state.

• According to a new study by Oxfam International, the richest 1% of people in India now own more than 40% of the country’s total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3% of wealth.
• The study, titled “Survival of the Richest,” was released on the first day of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting.

More on the news

• The report suggests that taxing India’s ten-richest at 5% could fetch enough money to bring children back to school.
• Additionally, if India’s billionaires were taxed once at 2% on their entire wealth, it would support the requirement of Rs 40,423 crore for the nutrition of malnourished in the country for the next three years.
• A one-time tax of 5% on the 10 richest billionaires in the country (Rs 1.37 lakh crore) is more than 1.5 times the funds estimated by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry (Rs 86,200 crore) and the Ministry of Ayush (Rs 3,050 crore) for the year 2022-23.
• The report also highlights the impact of gender inequality on earnings. It states that female workers earned only 63 paise for every 1 rupee a male worker earned.
  • For Scheduled Castes and rural workers, the difference is even starker – the former earned 55% of what the advantaged social groups earned, and the latter earned only half of the urban earnings between 2018 and 2019.
• Since the pandemic began in November 2022, billionaires in India have seen their wealth surge by 121% or Rs 3,608 crore per day in real terms, Oxfam said.
  • On the other hand, approximately 64% of the total Rs 14.83 lakh crore in Goods and Services Tax (GST) came from bottom 50% of the population in 2021-22, with only 3% of GST coming from the top 10%. The total number of billionaires in India increased from 102 in 2020 to 166 in 2022.

• Rajasthan has become the first state to implement a policy to control blindness, with the objective of ensuring the “right to sight”.
• A massive drive will be undertaken in the State to reduce the rate of blindness, and bring light into the lives of over 3 lakh people suffering from visual impairment.
• The State government’s Medical & Health Department released the policy document here over the week-end. The prevalence rate of blindness, which was 1.1% in 2020, will be brought down to 0.3%, through the policy.
• The government is taking a number of measures to improve access to eye care services in the state. The state government under the policy for Blindness Control will mandatorily run Keratoplasty Center and eye bank in all the government medical colleges.
• Under this policy, cornea collected by private organizations and NGOs getting financial help from the government will have to be provided to the government institutions on priority.
• Efforts to eliminate visual impairment would be made in the districts in collaboration with voluntary organizations, trusts, hospitals, and other charitable institutions working in this field. The state government will carry out a campaign for eye donation on an extensive level along with the private institutions.

Why in news

• Recently, the bull-taming sport of Jallikattu, also known as ‘Eru Thazhuvuthal’ and ‘Mancuvirattu’, has begun in full swing in the Palamedu of Madurai district.
• This traditional event, which is a part of the Pongal celebrations and is held on the day of Mattu Pongal, is a sport where a bull is let loose among a crowd, and participants attempt to take control of the bull by holding on to its hump for as long as they can.
• The sport is held in various locations across the state, including Avaniyapuram, Palamedu, and Alanganallur.
• This year, over 9,690 bulls and 5,399 tamers have registered online for participating in the Jallikattu.
• Mann Kuthal Process
  • Before the Jallikattu event, the ‘Mann Kuthal’ process takes place where bulls are trained to develop their skills by digging their horns in the wet earth. The bulls are prepared to attack when someone tries to catch their hump.
• The sport is a traditional way of preserving pure breed native bulls for the peasant community. Currently, cattle breeding has become an artificial process. The conservationists argue that Jallikattu is the best way to protect the male animals which otherwise are used only for meat.

Why in news

• FSIB recommended MDs for Bank of Baroda and Bank of India.
• FSIB is set up, under Department of Financial Services (DFS), Ministry of Finance, for-
  • Recommending whole-time directors and non-executive chairpersons on Boards of financial services institutions.
  • Advising on certain other matters relating to personnel management in these institutions.
• FSIB replaced Banks Board Bureau.
• Composition
  • Chairperson to be nominated by Central Govermment.
  • Ex officio members: Secretary in charge of DFS, Department of Public Enterprises, Chairperson of IRDM. Deputy Govemor of RBI.
  • Several part-time members with subject matter knowledge.

Why in news

• NASA’s James Webb telescope has found a star formation (Called NGC 346) in a dynamic duster that lies within SMC.
• NCG 346 is located in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), a dwarf galaxy close to our Milky Way. The SMC contains lower concentrations of elements heavier than hydrogen or helium, which astronomers call metals, compared to the Milky Way.
• Since dust grains in space are composed mostly of metals, scientists expected there would be low amounts of dust, and that it would be hard to detect. New data from Webb reveals the opposite.
• Visible to naked eye from southern hemisphere, SMC is smaller of the two irregular galaxies that make up to Magellanic Clouds.
• These two galaxies orbit the Milky Way once every 1,500 million years, and each other once every 900 million years.
• Magellanic Clouds were formed at about same time as Milky Way Galaxy, approximately 13 billion years ago.

Why in news

• It is a flagship publication of Department of Economic and Social Affairs o’ United Nations Secretariat.
  • Report builds on framework of Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing (MIPAA) and explores social and economic opportunities and challenges that population ageing presents. MIPAA was adopted at second World Assembly on Ageing in April 2002.
• Key Findings
  • Number of persons aged 65 years or older is expected to double over next three decades surpassing 1.6 billion in 2050 (accounting for more than 16% of global population).
  • Northern Africa and Western Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are expected to experience fastest growth.
  • Poverty levels at older ages are typically hig her among women, due to lower levels of participation in formal labour markets, shorter working careers and lower wages compared to men.
• Recommendations
  • Promote labour market participation, increase productivity, uphold good health and prevent poverty throughout people’s lifetimes.
  • Policies to reduce inequality and promote economic security at older ages in a fiscally sustainable manner.
• Other global initiatives for Older people
  • UN Principles for Older Persons, 1991
  • UN designated 2021- 2030 as Decade of Healthy Ageing

Initiatives in India for the Elderly

• Articles 38(1), 39 (e), 41 and 46 makes it incumbent on state to make provision for public assistance in old age.
• Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007
• Various schemes like Atal Vayo Abhyudaya Yojana,National Programme for the Health Care of Elderly, Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana etc.
• India is a signatory to International conventions on ageing like MIPPA, UN Decade of Healthy Ageing etc.

Why in news

• GOC refers to equatorward transport of cold, deep waters and poleward transport of warm, near-surface waters.
  • It is responsible for transport of carbon and heat among ocean basins and between ocean and atmosphere.
• GOC is a system of two connected overturning cells:
  • Upper cell is linked to formation of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) and its shallower return flow to form Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC).
  • Lower cell (referred as Southern Ocean Meridional Overturning Circulation) is associated with formation of Antarctic Bottom Water (AMM) and its return flow as Pacific Deep Water (PDW).
• Studies have indicated that tectonically driven changes in ocean gateways such as closure of Central American Seaway (CAS), since late Miocene period, had impacted GOC.
  • CAS is a body of water that once separated North America from South America.
• Now, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research reconstructed Deep Water Circulation record of Indian Ocean and provided evidence in support of theory that closure of CAS led to evolution of modern form of GOC.
  • Indian Ocean does not have any major deep-water formations of its own. It acts only as a host for both GOC components.