• Chief Justice Amjad A. Sayed, inaugurated Legal Aid Defence Counsel System offices through video-conferencing in six districts headquarters of Shimla, Sirmaur (Nahan), Solan, Kangra (Dharamsala), Kullu and
• A Legal Aid Defence Counsel System has been initiated for providing legal aid, assistance and representation in criminal matters in line with the Public Defender System.
• It provides legal advice and assistance to all individuals visiting its office and that of the District Legal Services Authority. Besides, it helps in representation, conducting trial and appeals, including all miscellaneous work in the criminal courts such as Court of Session, special courts and Judicial Magistrate courts.
• At the first instance, the Legal Aid Defence Counsel System was conceived to be implemented at 12 places, on a pilot project basis, by the National Legal Services Authority.
• On its successful implementation, it is now being extended to 365 places in District Legal Services Authorities of 22 states.
• The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) had set a target for each State Legal Services Authority to identify 50 per cent of District Legal Services Authorities for running the Legal Aid Defence Counsel System at the district headquarters.
• The HP State Legal Services Authority is thus ahead of the target as the Legal Aid Defence Counsel System has been inaugurated at six district headquarters.

• India’s fastest payment app PayRup was launched in India on 9th January 2023. PayRup is built with the finest technology of web 3.0. PayRup provides an advanced digital payment experience with an outstanding user experience. PayRup users can pay utility bills and landline bills, recharge their mobile, broadband, DTH, and purchase gift cards.

Key Points

• PayRup services are planned to expand across various financial instruments.
• These instruments include multiple payment services such as school fees, pay rent, and other payment collection services.
• PayRup has announced ticketing and booking services for flights, buses, and hotels along with other USPs.
• PayRup opens 24/7 customer care facilities for help and support for users.
• Customer Support desk runs with leading CRM technologies and supports by the global standard.
• PayRup ensured the 5 dimensions of service quality and follows SERVQUAL standards to provide the best service experience.
• PayRup gives 5% cashback for all payments through the app as a New Year offer, and users of PayRup are getting benefits from the cashback offer for day-to-day financial services.
• The launching event was hosted in Lulu Mall, Bangalore, and was launched by Mahadevappa Halagatti.

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday issued the revised list of accredited credit rating agencies for the purpose of assigning risk weight to assets for capital adequacy purposes by the banks.On a review, banks are advised to use the ratings of the six domestic credit rating agencies for risk weighting their claims for capital adequacy purposes.
• The six credit rating agencies are-
• Acuite Ratings & Research Limited (Acuite),
• Credit Analysis and Research Limited (CARE);
• CRISIL Ratings Limited,
• ICRA Limited,
• India Ratings and Research Private Limited (India Ratings) and
• INFOMERICS Valuation and Rating Pvt Ltd.

What are Credit Rating agencies?

• CRA evaluates and assesses an individual’s or a company’s creditworthiness, means, these agencies consider a debtor’s income and credit lines to analyze the debtor’s ability to repay the debt or if there is any credit risk associated. The credit rating indicates if the borrower is worth trusting with the new loan.
  • In India, CRAs are regulated by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) as per the SEBI Regulations, 1999 of the SEBI Act, 1992.
  • The creditworthiness of an individual or a company is decided based on the lending and borrowing transactions done in the past.
  • On October 31, 2022, SEBI issued norms regarding the standardization of rating scales used by CRAs.

• Union minister Jitendra Singh on Monday released the theme for the “National Science Day 2023″, titled “Global Science for Global Wellbeing”.
• The theme indicates India’s emerging global role and rising visibility in the international arena.
• The theme was in sync with India assuming the presidency of G-20, as it becomes the voice of the global south that is the developing countries of Asia, Africa and South America.
• The National Science Day is celebrated every year on 28 February to commemorate the discovery of the ‘Raman Effect’ by Indian physicist Sir C. V. Raman on 28 February 1928.
• Dr C V Raman got the Nobel prize for discovery of ‘Raman Effect’ in 1930.
• Department of science and technology serves as the nodal agency for celebrating this occasion.

• In an effort to scale up the implementation capacity and coverage of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in the country, the Minister of MSMEs, recently launched the web portal for the Rs 6,062.45 crore World Bank-assisted central government scheme, Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance (RAMP).

Key Points

• The scheme was originally announced back in 2020 to support Covid-hit MSMEs in the country and aims to improve the performance of 5.55 lakh MSMEs, according to a World Bank statement.
• The launch of the web portal for the RAMP scheme is a step towards providing much-needed support to MSMEs in India that have been affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• The scheme, which is backed by both the World Bank and the Indian government, aims to improve the performance of MSMEs in the country by supporting institutional and policy reforms, research studies, and technology upgradation.
• The scheme will initially be implemented in five states, with the goal of eventually scaling up to cover MSMEs throughout India.

About the RAMP Scheme

• The RAMP scheme, which has a budget of Rs 6,062.45 crore, was approved by the World Bank in June 2021. Of the total budget, Rs 3,750 crore was approved by the World Bank, while the remaining Rs 2,312.45 crore will be funded by the government. The scheme aims to improve the performance of 5.55 lakh MSMEs in the country and will be overseen by a National MSME Council headed by the MSME Minister.
• The budget for the RAMP scheme will be used for supporting institutional and policy reforms, research studies, integration of portals within the ministries/departments, increasing firm-level capabilities through technology upgradation, and reducing the incidence of delayed payments over a five-year period beginning in FY23.

Implementation of the RAMP Scheme

• During the first year of implementation, FY23, the RAMP scheme will invite states and union territories to prepare a financing roadmap called Strategic Investment Plans (SIPs).
• The projects or businesses proposed in the SIPs will be funded based on their appraisals by the MSME Ministry.
• The scheme will begin with five states – Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, Rajasthan, and Tamil Nadu, which are home to reportedly 54% of all registered MSMEs in the country.
• The financial support under the RAMP scheme will be routed into the MSME Ministry’s budget against ‘Disbursement Linked Indicators’ (DLIs) to back the ministry’s various MSME programs. The DLIs will include the National MSME Reform Agenda, accelerating MSME sector center-state collaboration, strengthening the invoice discounting market for MSMEs, and boosting the effectiveness of the CGTMSE scheme.

• Flagship report (issued twice a year) examines global economic developments and prospects, with a special focus on emerging markets and developing economies (EMDEs).
• Highlights
  • Global GDP Growth: 1.7% in 2023 -third-weakest pace since 1993, overshadowed only by 2009 and 2020 global recessions.
    • India is expected to grow at 6.6% in 2023.
  • Reasons for slowdown: Elevated Inflation, Higher interest rates, reduced investment and disruptions caused by Russia-Ukraine war.
  • Any additional adverse shocks could push the global economy into recession.
  • Recession is a significant, pervasive, and persistent decline in economic activity -at least for two consecutive quarters of negative GDP for most analysis.
  • EMDEs are facing a multi-year period of slow growth driven by heavy debt burdens and weak investment.
  • This may threaten progress on broader development and climate goals in EMDEs.
  • Small states, countries with 1.5 million people or fewer – are more vulnerable because of their reliance on external trade and financing, limited diversification, elevated debt, and susceptibility to natural disaster.
  • Steps needed for EMDEs include more investment to create jobs and increase output, greater debt transparency, stronger cooperation to increase cross-border trade etc.

• Recently discovered (by Palomar Observatory, USA) Comet will appear for the first time in 50,000 years.
• Comets are frozen leftovers from formation of solar system (4.6 billion years ago) composed of dust, rock, and ices.
• When a comet’s orbit brings it close to Sun, it heats up and spews dust and gases (forming a tail) into a giant glowing head larger than most planets.
• Billions of comets are orbiting our Sun in Kuiper Belt (called short-period comets) and even more distant Oort Cloud (called long-period comets).

• The Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, in collaboration with the Government of Karnataka, is organizing the 26th National Youth Festival from January 12th to 16th in Hubballi-Dharwad, Karnataka.
• The theme of this year’s festival is “Viksit Yuva Viksit Bharat,” which aims to empower the youth of India and promote their active participation in shaping the country’s future.
• The festival will commence with an inaugural function that is expected to be attended by more than 30,000 youth from across the country. The Prime Minister of India will share his vision for the future with the young attendees, providing them with an opportunity to engage with the country’s leaders and policymakers.
• Learning Activities-During the five-day event, over 7500 youth delegates, who are recognized leaders in their respective fields of activity, will come together to participate in a variety of learning activities. These activities will include discussions on relevant themes such as student-centric governance and Digital India, as well as exhibitions of traditional sports and competitive cultural events like folk dance and folk song.
• Adventure Sports-In addition to the learning activities, the festival will also include a wide range of adventure sports, including scuba diving, providing young people with an opportunity to experience new and exciting challenges.
• Youth Summit- One of the highlights of the festival will be the Youth Summit, which will provide a platform for two-way discussions on various themes, including the future of work, industry, innovation, and 21st century skills, climate change and disaster risk reduction, peacebuilding and reconciliation, shared future-youth in democracy and governance, and health and well-being.Many of the events at the festival will be live streamed across the nation, allowing crores of young people to engage with the festival and its activities, despite not being able to attend in person.
• Green Festival-This year, the festival is being celebrated as a Green Youth Festival, where only reusable cutlery, napkins, and other materials are being used. All mementos, medals, and stationery are made of reusable materials, and water refilling stations have been set up to reduce the use of disposables.
• Yogathon-On January 15th, a YOGATHON is planned between 6 AM to 8 AM, which will mobilize 5 lakh people from across 31 districts of Karnataka.

• Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) carried out a successful test launch of tactical ballistic missile Prithvi-II.
• Prithvi-II missile, which is powered by light propulsion twin engines, has a range of around 350 km and can carry 500-1,000 kg of warheads.
• It uses an advanced inertial navigation system to strike the set target.
• Prithvi was developed by DRDO under Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme (conceived by Dr A Pi Abdul Kalam).
• Other missiles under this program: Agni, Trishul, Akash, Nag.

• Companies including GM, Ford, Google would work together to establish standards for scaling up use of VPPs.
• VPP is a network of decentralized power generating units that pool together thousands of energy resources like electric vehicles (EVs) or electric heaters.
• VPPs use advanced software to react to electricity shortages with techniques like switching households’ batteries from charge to discharge mode or prompting electricity-using devices to back off their consumption.
• VPPs will enable grid planners to better manage growing electricity demand and make sure grid stays reliable even in extreme weather challenges and aging infrastructure.