FAQ

ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), the wholly-owned subsidiary and overseas investment company of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd. (ONGC), on June 23 announced that it has made an oil discovery in the Llanos Basin region of Colombia. ONGC is owned by the Government of India.

The company has made an oil discovery in the recently drilled Urraca-IX oil well, in CPO-5 block, Llanos Basin, Colombia.

The block was awarded to OVL in 2008 by Colombia. OVL holds 70% participating interest in the block while the remaining 30% stake in the block is held by its partner Geopark.

OVL in Colombia 

OVL has a significant presence in the oil and gas sector of Colombia. OVL has two oil producing blocks in Colombia .It is owned by Mansarovar Energy Colombia ltd (MECL). 

MECL is a 50:50 joint venture company of OVL and Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration and Production Corporation (SIPC) of China. Apart from this OVL has a stake in seven exploratory blocks in Colombia.

OVL now has stake in 35 oil and gas projects in 15 countries. Of these, it produces oil & gas from 14 assets, hydrocarbons have been discovered in four assets, and exploration is at various stages in 14 assets while three projects are in the pipeline. 

ONGC Videsh Limited 

• ONGC Videsh Limited is a Miniratna, Central Public Sector Enterprise (CPSE) of the Government of India.
• It is  under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas
• It is a wholly owned subsidiary and overseas arm of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), the flagship national oil company (NOC) of India. 
• The primary business of ONGC Videsh is to prospect for oil and gas acreages outside India, including exploration, development and production of oil and gas. 
• ONGC Videsh is the second largest petroleum company of India, next only to its parent ONGC.

Headquarters : New Delhi 

Chairperson: The Chairperson of ONGC is the Chairperson of OVL. At present Dr. Alka Mittal

Union Minister of State for Food Processing Industries, Prahlad Singh Patel inaugurated the National Conference on Millets on 23 June 2022.

The conference has been organized by ASSOCHAM (Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India) with the support of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, Government of India.

The theme of the conference is: The Future Super Food for India.

The conference will provide a platform for leaders in the Food processing sector, practitioners, scientists, farmers, industries, organized agriculture sector, civil society, and NGOs to discuss and share experiences on successes, and to deliberate the opportunities and challenges faced in ensuring food and nutritional security.

Millets or coarse cereals or nutri cereals 

• Millet is one of the oldest known foods to humans. However its consumption in the world has declined due to the emphasis given to wheat and rice by the governments. 
• It is also called coarse cereals or nutri cereals due to its high nutritive value. 
• Nutri-cereals refers to a group of crops comprising sorghum (Jowar), pearl millet (Bajra), finger millet (Ragi/Mandua), and small millets like little millet (Kutki), kodo millet (Kodo), barnyard millet (Sawa/Jhangora), foxtail millet (Kangni/Kakun), and proso millet (Cheena).

Millets as a Superfood 

• Millets are superfoods that are rich in nutrients such as copper, magnesium, phosphorus, and manganese. 
• They are low on glycaemic index. 
• The rich nutritional content in millets helps in maintaining a healthy life. These are ideal food for people suffering from chronic diseases such as diabetes, obesity, and heart diseases. Millets contain fiber that helps in digestion and fights against bowel issues.
•  Regular consumption of millets helps in preventing gastrointestinal problems and other diseases related to the kidney and liver.
• Due to its high resistance against harsh conditions, millets are sustainable to the environment, to the farmer growing it, and provide cheap and high nutrient options for all.
• Millets do not get destroyed easily, and some of the millets are good for consumption even after 10-12 years of growing, thus providing food security, and playing an important role in keeping a check on food wastage.

Millets and India 

• According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) , India is the largest producer of millet in the world  followed by Niger and China .
• The total production of millets in India in 2020-21 was 17.96 million tonnes which was nearly 41% of the world production.
• Rajasthan was the largest millet producing state in India.
• Millets are grown in about 21 states in the country including Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Haryana.
• India was the 5th largest exporter of millet in the world in 2020 according to the Union ministry of Commerce data.

International Year of Millets 2023

• To highlight the importance of millets, India proposed in the United Nations to declare 2023 as the International Year of the Millets.
•  The proposal was accepted and passed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2021 and 2023 was declared as the International Year of Millets.

Surat has become the first city in the country to get a processed steel slag (industrial waste) road built as part of a joint-venture project by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), Union Ministry of Steel, government think-tank NITI Aayog, and ArcelorMittal-Nippon Steel. 

This project falls under the initiative of the Waste to Wealth and Clean India Campaign.

The steel waste is converted into steel slag aggregate which is used in laying down the road.

The steel waste for this project came from the ArcelorMittal-Nippon Steel plant located in Hazira, Gujarat.

Benefit of the road built by steel waste 

• According to the experts, the construction cost of the processed steel slag road is 30 per cent cheaper than roads built from natural aggregates.
• The utilisation of processed steel slag in road construction will also help in the sustainable use of waste and will reduce the reliance on perishable natural aggregates. 
• This process is also expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint in road construction activity.

The RBL bank has appointed R Subramaniakumar as the new Managing Director (MD) and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Bank on 11 June 2022.

He has been appointed for a period of three years.

R. Subramaniakumar started his banking career with Punjab National Bank. He was earlier the MD & CEO of Indian Overseas Bank.  

He takes over the charge of the bank, when the bank reported a loss of Rs 74.74 crore in 2021-22 against a profit of Rs 50.77 crore in 2021-22.

RBL Bank 

It is a private Indian Bank which was earlier called as Ratnakar Bank.

It was founded in 1943.

It’s Headquarters: Mumbai, Maharashtra 

Its tagline: Apno Ka Bank

According to the data released by the government of India on 31 May 2022, India recorded its highest ever textiles and apparel exports at $44.4 billion in the 2021-22 financial year. This was a 41 percent increase over the 2020-21 fiscal.

The top three main buyer of India textile were;

• United States of America ,accounting for 27% of total export  followed by 
• European Union ,accounting for 18% of total export,
• Bangladesh, accounting for 12% of total export and 
• United Arab Emirates, 6% of total export.

Main component of textile export 

Cotton textile 

The largest share in the textile export was cotton textile.

The total cotton textile export was $17.2 billion with a growth rate of 54 % as compared to 2020-21. 

The share in total textile export was 39%.

Ready Made Garment 

The total export of readymade garment was $16billion in 2021-22 with a growth rate of 31% and its share in the total textile 36%.

Man-made Textile 

The total export of man-made textile was $ $ 6.3 billion in 2021-22 with a growth rate of 51% and its share in the total textile 14 %.

Handicraft 

The total export of handicraft was $ 2.1 billion in 2021-22 with a growth rate of 22% and its share in the total textile 5 %.

The Indian Railways is planning to introduce the country's first semi-high speed freight train by December 2022. The semi-high speed freight train will be named Gati Shakti train and will be based on the Vande Bharat Platform.

• Similar to the Vande Bharat trains it will also be 16 coaches with a speed of 160Km per hour and will be manufactured by the Integrated Coach Factory (ICF) Chennai.
•  The Gati Shakti train will target the e-commerce and courier parcel segment.
• According to the India Brand Equity Fund of the Government of India, “India’s e-commerce market is expected to reach $111 billion by 2024, $200 billion by 2026 and expected to reach $350 billion by 2030,”
• Railways plans to capture the small size parcel shipments by running dedicated high speed freight trains.
• Each train would have the first and last cars as refrigerated wagons to ferry perishable items such as fruits and vegetables.

According to the National Rail Plan ,the  Railways is aiming to increase its share in freight transportation from the present 27% to 45% by 2030 through better infrastructure and business development plans.

Vande Bharat Trains or Train 18

• It is a semi- high speed intercity train which has been designed, developed and manufactured by Integral Coach Factory, Perumbur, Chennai. 
• The train is made up of an aluminium body .It runs at a speed of 160 km/hr.
• The first train was started on 15 February 2019 on the New Delhi to Varanasi route and the second route on which it runs is New Delhi to Katra.
• The Prime Minister has set a target to run Vande Bharat trains on at least 75 routes by 15 August 2023.
• In the Union Budget for 2022-2023, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman proposed that 400 new Vande Bharat trains be developed and manufactured over the next three years.

Adani Group has bought SCC and Ambuja Cements from Switzerland's Holcim Group. With this, the Adani Group has now come second in terms of cement production in the country.

$10.5 billion deal:

• This deal has been done for $ 10.5 billion i.e. about Rs 82,000 crore. This is the largest ever acquisition by the Adani Group and India's largest M&A transaction in the infrastructure and materials space.

Important Facts :

• The Adani Group operates the country's largest commercial port and the largest renewable energy company.

• Adani Group plans to double the production capacity of Ambuja and ACC Cement in the next five years. At present, the annual capacity of these two companies is 70 million tonnes, which is planned to reach 140 million tonnes after five years.

Full potential to increase demand for cement:

• Adani said cement is likely to remain in high demand in India for the next several decades. India is the second largest cement market in the world but per capita, cement consumption in the country is less than half that of other countries.

• Cement consumption in India is only 242 kg per capita, as compared to the global average of 525 kg per capita, India has significant potential for cement sector growth.

• The middle class of the country is continuously increasing. The per capita cement consumption in China is 1600 kg.

• With the rise of the middle class, the demand for cement in the country will also increase. Along with this, the government is also emphasizing on infrastructure.

• The government plans to build 100 smart cities, 200 new airports, housing for all and concrete highways.

• A foreign company has been formed for this acquisition. Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered Bank have pledged funds for this deal. Along with this, investment will also be made from Adani Group.

India in Cement Production:

• India is the second largest cement producing country in the world (China ranks first). China produced 2.2 billion metric tons of cement in 2019. India accounts for about 8% of the global installed capacity.

Top Cement Producing Company of India:

• UltraTech Cement Limited is the largest cement company in India. UltraTech is the largest producer of gray cement, white cement and ready-mix concrete in India.

• Shree Cement Limited is one of the top 5 cement companies in India. The main products or services of Shree Cement Limited are Cement and Clinker. Shree Jungrodhak, Bangur and Rockstrong are among the company's brands.

• Ambuja Cements Limited (ACL) is a well known brand in Western India. ACL is India's largest cement manufacturer having started production in 1986. Gujarat Ambuja Cements Limited was renamed as Ambuja Cements Limited. Holcim, a multinational cement company, acquired the management control of ACL in 2006.

• The ACC was established on August 1, 1936. It is India's leading cement and concrete manufacturer.

The Central Government has given permission to Telangana to store 6.05 lakh metric tonnes of Bhujia rice made from the remaining paddy of Kharif marketing season 2020-21 and 2021-22 in the Food Corporation of India godown.

Keeping in view the request of the State Government, a letter to this effect has been issued on 11th May, 2022.

Important Facts :

• The rice mills in Telangana were supplied with ready-made rice till Kharif Marketing Season 2020-21 (Rabi) September, 2021. On the request of Telangana Government, this period has been extended for the seventh time till May 2022 on the basis of Government of India mandate 14.05.

• Earlier, the central government had approved the estimated procurement of 40.20 lakh metric tonnes of rice from Telangana during the kharif marketing season 2021-22 (rabi crop).

• The central government has always supported procurement activities in all states including Telangana.

Bhujia Rice Nutrient-rich:

• Rice has the highest carbohydrate content which gives energy to the body.

• Rice is rich in solids and minerals that meet the daily requirements of the body.

• It contains more fiber, protein and vitamin B than normal white rice.

• Bhujia rice is higher in fiber and some nutrients than processed and polished white rice. Nutrients that are dissolved in water are absorbed into the rice by the peel during first soaking and then boiling.

• It is more nutritious than white rice, due to the high resistant starch in it, it does not increase blood sugar as much as white rice consumption.

• Since it is partially ripe, it also contains nutrients that are destroyed during refining in white rice.

Top Paddy Producing States in India:

• The major rice producing states of India are West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Orissa.

• These 10 states account for more than 72% of the total rice production.

Major producer of rice in the world:

• India is the second largest producer of rice in the world and ranks first in terms of exports. Whereas China ranks first in terms of production.

• Rice production in India increased from 53.6 million tonnes in 1980 to 120 million tonnes in FY21.

• Top Rice Producing Countries:- China, India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Philippines, Brajil, Pakistan, America comes respectively.

The Union Government will send business delegations to Morocco, Tunisia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey, Algeria and Lebanon to explore possibilities of promoting wheat exports from India.

India has set a target of exporting a record 10 million tonnes of wheat in the fiscal year 2022-23 amid rising demand for food grains globally.

A Task Force on Wheat Exports:

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has already constituted a Task Force on Wheat Exports with representatives from various Ministries including Railways, Shipping and Commerce Ministries and under the aegis of Agricultural Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

India Wheat Supplier :

• APEDA organised such an interactive meeting with various stakeholders including farmers, traders and exporters in Karnal, Haryana to promote wheat exports and ensure export of quality produce. Where opportunities and challenges in the field of wheat export were discussed.

• According to the estimates of the Directorate General of Foreign Trade, India has exported 7 million tonnes (MT) of wheat during the fiscal year 2021-22 which is valued at $2.05 billion. About 50 percent of the total wheat exports were exported to Bangladesh during the last financial year.

• Egypt, which is one of the largest importers of wheat in the world, had agreed to get wheat from India.

Important facts :

• Egypt, which is one of the largest importers of wheat in the world, had agreed to get wheat from India.

• Turkey has talked about importing wheat on a large scale from India in May 2022, which is still under consideration.

Growth in Indian Wheat Exports:

• In the period April to January 2021-22, India's wheat exports increased to $1.74 billion; Whereas in the same period in 2020-21 it was $ 340.17 million.

• The country's wheat exports stood at $61.84 million in 2019-20.

• Bangladesh has been the largest importer of Indian wheat.

• India has also entered new markets like Afghanistan, Yemen, Indonesia and Qatar.

• India wants to replace Ukrainian and Russian dominance among the 30 wheat importing countries in the world. Out of these 30 countries, about 10 to 15 are existing countries, but India's share is very less.

• India's wheat export to the world is less than 1 percent. The stock has risen to 0.54 percent in 2020 from 0.14 percent in 2016.

• Top 10 countries importing wheat from India in 2020-21 are Bangladesh, Nepal, United Arab Emirates, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Afghanistan, Qatar, Indonesia, Oman, Malaysia.

Wheat production in india : 

• India was the world's second largest producer of wheat with a share of around 14.14 per cent in global wheat production in 2020.

• Annually, the country produces 107.59 million tonnes of wheat, most of which is used for domestic consumption (98 million tonnes).

• The major wheat growing states are Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Bihar, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

• Top ten wheat producing countries in the world: China, India, Russia, USA, Canada, France, Ukraine, Pakistan, Germany, Australia.

M. Narayanan assumed charge as part-time chairman of City Union Bank Ltd. (CUB) on 6 May 2022 for a period of two years

 This was done by the bank after the Reserve Bank of India recommended the name of the practicing Chartered Accountants.

 Mr. Narayanan succeeds R. Mohan, who laid down office on Tuesday after completing a three-year term, 

Important for Exam 

City Union Bank (CUB)

It is an old private sector bank in India.

It was set up in 1904 

Its headquarters:  Kumbakonam, Tamilnadu 

Chief Executive Officer: D.N. Kamakodi

Tagline: Trust and Excellence since 1904