• NARCL, an Asset Reconstruction Company (ARC)/bad bank, has acquired its first stressed asset- Jaypee Infratech- from lenders.
• NARCL/Bad bank is a corporate structure that isolates risky assets held by banks in a separate entity. It was announced in Union Budget 2021-22.
• NARCL will take over large value NPA accounts (over Rs 500 crore) from banks with total assets to be acquired of around Rs 2 lakh crore.
• Stressed assets will be acquired through a 15 percent upfront cash payment and 85 percent in form of security receipts (SR).
• NARCL is incorporated under Companies Act with Public Sector Banks holding a majority stake.
• It is registered with RBI as an ARC under Securitization and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act, 2002.

Significance of Bad Bank

• Reduce NPAs of banks, improving financial system stability and efficiency.
• Improve recoveries and promote competition, as NARCL allows Swiss Challenge to get the best for banks from stressed assets.
• Opportunities for other ARCs at MSME’s level, as NARCL reconstruct assets only where banks total exposure is more than Rs. 500 crore.

• In a rare occurrence, pug marks of a tiger have been reported from Paonta Sahib, about half a km away from Simbalbara National Park.
• Wildlife officials are suspecting that the tiger may have crossed over from Rajaji National Park.
• The wildlife officials are, however, not sure whether the tiger has returned or is still around Simbalbara National Park.
• The DFO said a tiger venturing out from the Rajaji habitat complex to a habitat around Simbalbara National Park was a great sign for both places. “It indicates the success of attempts to conserve tigers and its habitats. Normally, a tiger moves out from its original habitat to adjoining areas when its population rises and the competition increases,” .
• For Simbalbara National Park, the arrival of a tiger will boost its biodiversity and eco-tourism.
  • Simbalbara National Park is located in the Paonta Sahib Valley of Sirmour District, Himachal Pradesh, along its border with Haryana. It is also known as Col. Sher Jung National Park.

• The Indian Institute of Technology in Mandi signed a pact with the IAF’s Headquarters Maintenance Command in Nagpur on Monday to collaborate on research and development in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning.
• Under the pact, IIT, Mandi, and HQ MC will collaborate for research projects, technology development, and skill development in the areas of artificial intelligence, machine learning, human-computer interaction, and decision support systems, it said.
• The MoU will enable activities such as mutual visits by officers of MC and IIT Mandi faculty for discussion on the collaborative projects, and conducting joint brainstorming sessions and workshops, a statement issued by the IIT said.
• The collaboration will also facilitate the technology development and will look into plans to scale up the prototypes and technologies coming out of the collaboration for fabrication by mutually identified industry partners.

About Veer Narayan Singh

• He was a landlord from Sonakhan, Chhattisgarh.
• He spearheaded the 1857 war in Chhattisgarh. He is also considered as “The 1st Chhattisgarhi freedom fighter”.
• His ancestors were from the Gond tribe. Later on, they changed their affiliation from the Gond to the Binjhwar tribe.

• Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Jayanti or Netaji Jayanti is a national event celebrated in India as Parakram Diwas on January 23 to mark the birth of prominent Indian freedom fighter Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
• This year nation celebrates 126th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
  • For the first time, Netaji Jayanti was celebrated as Parakram Divas in 2021 on the occasion of his 124th birthday. In West Bengal, Jharkhand, Tripura, and Assam, it is a recognised holiday.

Importance of Parakram Diwas

• The purpose of the holiday is to recall and honour Netaji’s tremendous devotion to the country and his unwavering spirit. Netaji was a prominent nationalist, politician, and freedom fighter. This day has been designated to encourage Indians, especially young people, to aspire to his strength, perseverance, selflessness, and patriotic fervor despite oppression. He oversaw the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fouj). He was the founder-head of the Azad Hind Government.

About Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

• Netaji’ was born on January 23, 1897, in Cuttack in Odisha. He acquired a degree in philosophy and was later selected for the Indian Civil Services. He refused to join as he did not want to serve the British Government.
• Later, in 1919, he travelled to England to complete the Indian Civil Service (I.C.S.), finishing fourth in his class with the highest English score. He didn’t want to work for the British government; therefore in 1921 he resigned and went back to India.
• Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, who later served as his political mentor, encouraged Netaji to join the Indian National Congress (INC) when he returned to India.
  • Netaji joined the Indian National Congress in 1921.
• He regarded Swami Vivekananda as his spiritual guru and was greatly affected by his ideas.
• Bose was elected president of the All India Youth Congress in 1923 and later served as president of the Congress in 1938 and 1939.
• During World War II, in Southeast Asia, Netaji formed and led a 5,000-man force known as the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) under the slogan ‘Delhi Chalo’ In order to garner popular support in his home state of Bengal, he also founded a new political party.
• According to government reports, on August 18, 1945, a plane crash near Tohuku, Japanese Taiwan, caused Netaji to suffer third-degree burns. Although the authorities announced his death in 2017, there are still a number of rumors about his whereabouts
• Netaji started a newspaper called “Swaraj”.
• He wrote a book called “The Indian Struggle”. The book covers the Indian Independence movement between 1920 and 1942.
• The term “Jai Hind” was coined by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
• With the slogan “Give me blood and I will give you freedom”, he awakened the country towards fighting against the British.

• Database contains a wide range of information in form of statistics and regulations, circulars etc. issued by SEBI and information to be obtained by an Issuer to tap Municipal Bond Market.
• A municipal bond is a debt instrument issued by municipal corporations.
  • Bengaluru floated municipal bonds for first time in India in 1997.
• Need for Municipal Bonds
  • Better urban infrastructure requires greater flow of financial resources to Local governments.
  • Reduce dependence of municipal corporations on central or state government.
  • Will enable adoption of innovative and appropriate technologies for waste treatment, tackling of air and water pollution etc.
• Constraints faced
  • Lack of a secondary market inhibits attracting a more extensive investor base.
  • Conditions imposed such as prescribed limits and maximum loan repayment period.
  • Poor accounting standards and low institutional capabilities.
• RBI in a recent report suggested several measures for resource mobilisation through municipal bonds such as:
  • Sound and efficient regulation, greater transparency, and better governance.
  • Listing municipal bonds in stock exchanges for developing a secondary market.

Types of Municipal Bonds

• General obligation bonds: for enhancing civic amenities such as water, sanitation, garbage disposal, etc.
• Revenue bonds: for a specific purpose such as construction of a toll road or a toll bridge.

• Paper suggested that for some countries targeting leads to improved outcomes. However for most countries there is limited impact of such framework
• Inflation targeting is a technique to bring inflation to a targeted level within a specific time horizon.
• It controls inflation level by increasing or decreasing interest rate prevailing in economy.
  • Increasing rate is believed to bring down inflation by curtailing economic activity.
  • Decreasing rate increases inflation level by increasing economic activity.
• Importance of Inflation Targeting
  • More transparent, accountable and coherent policymaking.
  • Price stability allows investors to confidently invest for productive activities.
  • Price stability maintains purchasing power of consumers.
• In 2016, Parliament amended RBI Act, 1934 to change monetary policy, and introduce an inflation targeting framework.
• As per the new framework. central government, in consultation with RBI sets:
  • An inflation target.
  • An upper and lower tolerance level for retail inflation.
• Target has been set at 4%, with an upper tolerance limit of 6% and a lower tolerance limit of 2%.
  • Target and bands are revised every five years, In March 2021; the existing targets were carried forward.

• Maidams are the burial mounds of Ahom kings, queens and nobles.
• Though Maidams are found in all districts of Upper Assam, Charaideo, first capital of Ahoms was necropolis of almost all Ahom Royals.
• Maidam consists of three major features:
  • A vault or chamber (to keep mortal remains).
  • A hemispherical earthen mound covering the chamber with a brick structure (Chow-chali) for annual offering over it.
  • An octagonal boundary wall having an arched gateway on its west.
• Their sizes vary from a modest mound to a hillock, depending upon the power, status and resources of the person buried.
• Special officer, known as Changrung Phukan, were appointed for construction of all the civil works including royal Maidam.
• Ahom kings used to be buried along with their treasures and articles of their day-to-day use.
• Presently, there are 40 UNESCO WHS in India: 32 cultural (none in the northeast), 7 natural and 1 mixed type.

About Ahom Kingdom

• Traditionally and culturally Ahoms are members of Great Tai (Tai-Yai) group of people.
• They entered upper Assam region of Brahmaputra Valley through Patkai hills under leadership of Chaulung Sinkapha, first king of the Ahom dynasty. He established capital at Charaideo.
• Lachit Borphukan was one of the greatest war generals who fought againts Mughals.

• The Indian Navy on Monday commissioned the fifth diesel-electric Kalvari-class submarine Vagir.
• It is among the six submarines being built by the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL), Mumbai, in collaboration with the French M/s Naval Group under Project 75.
• Four of these submarines have already been commissioned into the Navy and a sixth will be commissioned next year.

What are the specifications of Vagir?

• The latest submarine gets its name from the erstwhile Vagir, a submarine which served the Navy between 1973 and 2001 and undertook numerous operational missions.
• The construction of the new Vagir began in 2009 and it took its maiden sea sortie in February last year. Also known as Sand Shark, the submarine was delivered to the Indian Navy in December 2022.

Kalvari-class background

• Vagir is a Kalvari-class submarine, which includes other vessels, such as the INS Kalvari, INS Khanderi, INS Karanj, INS Vela and INS Vagsheer.
  • Of these, Kalvari and Khanderi were commissioned in 2017 and 2019, and Vela and Karanj were inducted in 2021. Vagir has now been commissioned and Vagsheer was launched in 2022 and is expected to be inducted next year.
• The submarines in the current Kalvari-class take their names from erstwhile decommissioned classes of submarines named Kalvari, which included Kalvari, Khanderi, Karanj and Vela classes — comprising Vela, Vagir, Vagshir. The now-decommissioned Kalvari and Vela classes were one of the earliest submarines in the post-independence Indian Navy, which belonged to Soviet origin Foxtrot class of vessels.
• Like Kalvari – which means Tiger Shark, Vagir has been named after a Sand Fish, a predatory marine species. Khanderi has been named after an Island Fort built by Chhatrapati Shivaji, which played a key role in his Navy. Karanj has also been named after an Island located South of Mumbai.

Features, capabilities and technical details of INS Vagir

• The design of the Kalvari-class of submarines is based on the Scorpene class of submarines designed and developed by French defence major Naval Group formerly DCNS and the Spanish state-owned entity Navantia.
• This class of submarines has Diesel Electric transmission systems and these are primarily attack submarines or ‘hunter-killer’ types which mean they are designed to target and sink adversary naval vessels.
• The Kalavari class of submarines has an estimated endurance of approximately 50 days. They also have the capability of operating in a wide range of Naval combat including anti-warship and anti-submarine operations, intelligence gathering and surveillance and naval mine laying. These submarines are around 220 feet long and have a height of 40 feet.
• It can reach the highest speeds of 11 knots (20 km/h) when surfaced and 20 knots (37 km/h) when submerged.
• The Kalvari class of submarines is capable of launching various types of torpedoes and missiles and is equipped with a range of surveillance and intelligence-gathering mechanisms.
• With this, the Navy now has 16 conventional and one nuclear submarine in service. It includes seven Russian Kilo class submarines, four German HDW submarines, five Scorpene class submarines, and the indigenous nuclear ballistic missile submarine INS

• Europe’s space mission to icy moons of Jupiter is ready for launch. The final testing of Juice satellite will take place in Toulouse in France.
• Subsequently, the satellite will be shipped to South America. The satellite will be launched in April, according to a report.
• JUICE stands for JUpiter ICy moons Explorer mission.
• The spacecraft will make a series of flybys of Jupiter’s planet-sized moons – Callisto, Ganymede and Europa. The objective is to ascertain whether Callisto, Ganymede and Europa are habitable or not.
• Juice satellite will undertake a journey of 6.6 billion kilometres that will last 8.5 years. It will reach Jupiter in July, 2031.
• Subsequently, it will undertake 35 flybys around the Callisto, Ganymede and Europa. Finally, it will settle around Ganymede by the end of 2034.
• The European Space Agency is heading the project. Aerospace company Airbus is leading the construction of JUpiter ICy moons Explorer at an estimated cost of £1.4 billion, as per the report.
• In 1610, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilee discovered four major moons of Jupiter — Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io. Juice will not inspect Io.
• There are 80 moons of Jupiter. International Astronomical Union has given names to 57 of them.
  • Main moons of Jupiter are Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io.
• Scientists are curious to study Jupiter as the planet has one of the largest moon systems in the universe.