NATIONAL

ASEM Summit held virtually

• The 13th edition of ASEM Summit was held virtually, Vice president Venkaiah Niadu will represent India in the summit.
• The summit is being held under the chairmanship of Cambodia, the summit was given the theme "strengthening multilateralism for shared growth". It also marks the 25^th anniversary of ASEM.
• The summit will discuss about the issues related to strengthening multilateralism, post-pandemic socio-economic recovery and development as well as other regional and global issues of common interest and concern.

About ASEM-

1. The Asia–Europe Meeting (ASEM) is a political dialogue forum to enhance relations and various forms of cooperation between its partner and to exchange views on regional and global issues and strengthen cooperation in a wide range of areas.
2. It was officially established on 1 March 1996 at the 1st ASEM Summit (ASEM1) in Bangkok,Thailand.
3. It has a member of 51 countries in Asia and Europe and two regional organizations namely European union and ASEAN secretriate.

More Funds for MGNREGS

• An additional fund of Rs10,000 crore has been provided to the the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme by the Finance Ministry as a temproary measure. Further requirements will be provided based on the assesment of demand.
• Without considering the additional funds provided, the available fund for the scheme stood at Rs76,340 crore
• A sum of Rs 86,229 crore which have been incurred as expenditure, including payments due for wages and materials is far below the funds available.
• The balance sheets for the scheme were low in 24 States and Union Teritories, more than ₹1,170 crore worth of wage payments for MGNREGA workers are still pending.
• Economist has noted that 13% of households that demanded work has failed to get the work, and the unmet demand is as high as 20% in Gujarat, Telangana and Bihar.

INTERNATIONAL

Early warning anti missile system by Russia

• Russia has succesfully placed its new anti missile system similar to Kupol in the orbit using a Soyuz rocket from the Plesetsk cosomodrome.
• It is similar to Tundra satellite, which is capable of detecting ballistic missile.

BANKING, FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

$1.5 billion to India for COVID-19 vaccines

• An amount of $1.5 billion loan to India for COVID-19 vaccine procurement was approved by the Asian Development Bank.
• The fund will be used to procure at least 66.7 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses for an estimated 31.7 crore people of the country.
• The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank is expected to co-finance an additional USD 500 million for the project.

Three rate GST structure

• National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) study reveals that the Government can resolve the GST rate structure without losing revenues by rearranging the four major rates of 5%, 12%, 18% and 28% with a three rate framework of 8%, 15% and 30%.
• The Merging of 12% and 18% GST rates into any tax rate lower than 18% may result in revenue loss. The study proposes that the GST Council may consider a three-rate structure by adopting 8%, 15% and 30% for revenue neutrality.

New Wage Rate Index released

• The Ministry of Labour has released a new series of Wage Rate Index (WRI) with base year 2016, which is being compiled and maintained by the Labour Bureau.
• International Labour Organization, National Statistical Commission etc, has recommended to change the base year of WRI numbers from 1963-65 to 2016 by the Labour Bureau to enhance the coverage and to make index more representative.
• Total 37 industries have been covered in the new WRI basket as against 21 industries in the 1963-65 series.
• The selected 37 industries in the new series are categorized as 30 industries from the manufacturing sector, 4 industries from the mining sector and 3 industries from the plantation sector, from the earlier series had that 14 industries from the manufacturing sector, 4 from the mining sector and 3 from the plantation sector
• About 700 occupations have been covered under 37 selected industries in new series of WRI.

Moody’s Projection on GDP

• Moody's Investors Service projected India’s GDP growth at 9.6 percent for the 2021 calendar year and 7 percent for 2022, unchanged from its May 2021.
• It also expects the Reserve Bank of India to maintain an accommodative policy stance until economic growth prospects durably improve.
• It also estimated that G-20 economies will grow by 6.2 percent as a whole in 2021 against the 3.2 percent contraction in 2020. The group will grow 4.5 percent in 2022

MISCELLANEOUS

• Nov 26^th is observed as National Maize day.
• Nov26th is observed as National Costitution day of India.