NATIONAL

Quarterly Employment Survey(QES) for second quarter released

• Union Minister for Labour & Employment Bhupinder Yadav has released the report of second quarter of Quarterly Employment Survey (QES), which is a part of All-India Quarterly Establishment-based Employment Survey (AQEES).
• The AQEES will provide updates about the employment and related variables in both organized and unorganized segments of nine selected sectors.
• The estimated total employment in the nine selected sectors in this round of QES (July-September, 2021) stood at 3.10 crore approximately, which is 2 lakhs higher than the estimated employment (3.08 crore) from the first round of QES (April-June, 2021).
• The nine selected sectors include- Manufacturing, Construction, Trade, Transport, Education, Health, Accommodation & Restaurant, IT/BPO and Financial Services.

The Report revealed that-

1. Of the total employment in the nine sectors, Manufacturing accounted 39%, Education with 22% and Health as well as IT/BPOs sectors both at 10%. Trade and Transport sectors engaged 5.3% and 4.6% of the total estimated workers respectively.
2. The over-all percentage of female workers stood at 32.1%, higher than 29.3% reported during the first round of QES.
3. Regular workers constitute 87% and only 2% being casual workers in the nine selected, In the Construction sector, 20% of the workers were contractual and 6.4% were casual workers.
4. 23.5% of all the establishments were registered under the Companies Act, One-fourth of the establishments were operating as registered societies, 53.9% were registered under the Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 and 27.8% under Shops & commercial Establishments Act, 1958.
5. Value of employees with educational qualification stood at 28.4% of those working in seven of the nine sectors (excluding Education and Health) were matriculates/secondary or less educated, while another 37.0% were graduates or had higher qualifications.

India and South Korea to hold trade talks

• Commerce & Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister for Trade, Republic of Korea Han-koo Yeo, will hold a meeting today to discuss bilateral trade related issues.
• The discussion will focus on addressing the large trade deficit, market access issues and non-tariff barriers faced by Indian exporters.
• Investment related issues between both the countries will also be discussed during the meeting.
• The meeting is expected to further boost India-Korea trade relations in an equitable and balanced manner.

South Korea Capital-Seoul

South Korea President-Moon Jae-in

First City with water Metro Project

• Kochi, in Kerala, has become the first city in India with a water metro project by launching its first series of battery powered electric boats in the city.
• The Project haas been operated by Kochi Metro Rail Ltd and will have an integrated water transport system with 15 identified routes.
• The Total Outlay of the Project is set at Rs 819 Crore, financed by Indo German Financial Cooperation, where Rs 579 Crore will be financed by German Funding Agency through a loan agreement.
• It will connect 10 islands along a network of routes that span 76 km with a fleet of 78 fast, electrically propelled hybrid ferries plying to 38 jetties.
• The project uses latest technology of LTO batteries, which can be charged fast.
• The Project is expected to reduce pollution and traffic congestion and the boats are been constructed by Cochin Shipyard Ltd.

Kerala Chief Minister- Pinarayi Vijiyan

INTERNATIONAL

Sri Lanka launches Jaffna-Colombo luxury train service

• Sri Lanka has launched a luxury train service connecting Jaffna district with capital city Colombo with the help of a Line of Credit offered by India.
• The Train covers a distance of 380kms approximately and equipped with all facilities was launched for passengers travelling from Colombo’s Mount Lavinia suburb to Jaffna’s Kankesanthurai port suburb in the north.
• The supply of air-conditioned diesel multiple units is one of the many railway projects being undertaken by India in Sri Lanka.
• Modernisation of railways and creation of new railway infrastructure have been important sectors of focus under the Indian Government's development portfolio in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka president-Gotabaya Rajapaksa

BANKING, FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

Reserve Banks sets up internal fintech department

• The Reserve Bank of India has set up a new separate fintech department to focus on the dynamically changing financial landscape in the country.
• It was set up to give further focus to the area and innovation in the fintech sector in keeping pace with the dynamically changing landscape.
• The circular further states that the new department will not only promote innovation in the sector but also identify the challenges and opportunities associated with it and address them in a timely manner.
• The department will also provide a further framework for further research on the subject that can aid policy interventions by the Bank.
• All matters related to inter-regulatory coordination and internal coordination on fintech shall also be dealt with by the Department.
• All matters related to the facilitation of constructive innovations and incubations in the fintech sector, which may have wider implications for the financial sector/markets and falling under the purview of the Bank, will be dealt with the Fintech Department.

Head of the department for new fintech department-Ajay Kumar Choudhary

Abacus 2.0

• Private sector lender RBL bank has colloborated with google to strengthen its customer experience strategy and expand value proposition in order to serve its rapidly growing customer base through its digital platform, Abacus 2.0.
• This collaboration will enable RBL to better manage customer data and analytics and enable effective cross-selling, thereby reducing the cost of customer acquisition significantly.
• It aims to provide a superior and holistic one-stop solution to its customers through Abacus 2.0.
• It also plans to increase its over 4 million customers to a base of 12-14 million users in the next three years in the urban retail asset and liability category.
• It will increase Google Cloud’s infrastructure for seamless on-boarding of customers and the infrastructure will also be the technology foundation of a customer acquisition engine with inclusive access to products such as payments, deposits, insurance, credit card, investments, secured loans and more.

RBL bank Managing Director-Vishwavir Ahuja

AWARDS AND APPOINTMENTS

Golden globe awards 2022

• Hollywoods biggest awards-Golden Globe Awards2022 was awarded to recognise theor excellence in film, both American and international, and American television.
• The 79th edition of the annual event, which honoured the best in American television, as well as film in 2021 as chosen by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

List of Winners-