Morning Brief: Bank NPAs Rising; Terror In Turkey; PMO For Full Autonomy To Top 20 Colleges

Good Morning, Swarajya Readers! Here’s What You Need To Know Today.

BANK NPAs RISE

The risks to banking sector’s stability have increased sharply in recent months. The Reserve Bank Of India report released yesterday noted that gross non-performing assets (GNPAs) of banks jumped to 7.6 percent in March [Rs 7.8 lakh crore] from 5.1 percent in September [Rs 3.4 lakh crore] last year. The top 100 borrowers accounted for nearly a fifth of these NPAs. Total stressed assets increased to about 11.5 percent of banks’ combined loan book.

This sharp rise is because of the clean-up process initiated by the RBI which has forced the banks to recognise the NPAs and put in processes for recapitalisation.

FULL AUTONOMY

The Prime Minister’s Office has advised the human resource development ministry that top 20 educational institutions should be given full autonomy so that they can achieve global excellence standards. The PMO recommends that even a softer version of the regulation as practised by the UGC should be relaxed further.

The institutes can be existing or greenfield (the latter for private institutions) which will be given full freedom to determine course structure, course duration, course credits and timetables.

MISSILE LAUNCH

Weather permitting, India will launch a new surface-to-air missile developed jointly with Israel, from a defence base off the Odisha coast on Wednesday. The test-firing of the missile will be jointly carried out by Indian defence personnel, DRDO and Israel Aerospace Industries.

Apart from the missile, the system also includes a multi- functional surveillance and a threat alert radar (MF-STAR) for detection, tracking and guidance of the missile.

Civilians within 2.5 Km radius have been asked to shift to nearby shelter camps. The warnings have also been issued to local fishermen not to venture out into the sea during the launch.

TRACKING MONSOON

The data from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) show that half of India has received normal rainfall as the fist month of monsoon comes to an end. As of yesterday, 49 percent of the country had received normal rainfall, 17 percent had received excess rainfall and 34 percent had got deficient or scanty rain.

South India has observed 16 percent excess rainfall. The figure for north-west is two percent which is expected to increase further as the prediction is that it will see heavy rains from now until 10 July.

Central India (East MP, Vidarbha, Central Maharashtra) is still facing huge rainfall deficits. So is North-east which is expected to receive good rains from 1 July. Distribution of rainfall in pulse-growing states is uneven which is a cause of worry given the high increases in prices of pulses.

TERROR IN TURKEY

Istanbul. Three suicide bombers blew themselves off outside the main airport building with one of them firing shots before detonating himself. 36 people are dead and more than 150 have been injured in an attack for which there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

The US State department had issued a travel warning just a day before citing increased terrorist threats in the country in recent months.

MUST READ OP-EDS

Aadhar 2.0 [N.S. Ramnath]: Team behind Aadhaar is now creating the digital infrastructure that aims to disrupt financial services, make service delivery cheaper and efficient and boost start-up ecosystem.

PM’s Interview To Arnab [Jaggi]: Now we know Narendra Modi little better, and much of it is good.

Inflation Targeting [Rajeswari Sengupta]: A central feature of a well-functioning monetary policy is transmission which is ineffective in India.

SWARAJYA SPECIAL

Energised Focus On Power Sector Augurs Well For India: Piyush Goyal has created several unique interventions in the last 18 months to push and prod the state governments to align with his vision of 24x7 power for all.

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