Current Affairs 5 December

5 December 2022

What are personality rights?

Personality rights refer to the right of a person to protect his/her personality under the right to privacy or property. These rights are important to celebrities as their names, photographs or even voices can easily be misused in various advertisements by different companies to boost their sales

A large list of unique personal attributes contributes to the making of a celebrity. All of these attributes need to be protected, such as name, nickname, stage name, picture, likeness, image and any identifiable personal property, such as a distinctive race car

China’s moves in the Indian Ocean

On November 21, China’s top development aid agency convened the first “China-Indian Ocean Region Forum” in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming.

The organisers have said the forum was at tended by “high level representatives” and “senior officials” from 19 countries: Indonesia, Pakistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Maldives, Nepal, Afghanistan, Iran, Oman, South Africa, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, Djibouti, and Australia

Why has the Reserve Bank of India introduced an e-rupee?

What is the digital rupee? The digital rupee, or the e-rupee, is a central bank digital currency issued by the RBI. It is similar to the physical cash that you hold in your wallet except that the e-rupee is held electronically in a digital wallet overseen by the RBI. The digital rupee is recognised as legal tender by the RBI, and thus has to be accepted by everyone in the country as a medium of exchange. It is, however, different from deposits that you hold in a bank. Unlike deposits which are paid interest, the digital rupees in your wallet are not paid any interest by the central bank. Deposits held in banks can be converted into digital rupees and vice-versa.

What are the risks?

1. The introduction of central bank digital currencies internationally has worried many who believe that it could disrupt the banking system.
2. When interest rates offered by banks are low, people may be more prone to converting their bank deposits into digital currencies since they would not lose out much in the way of interest income by making the shift.
3. Such an event could cause the cash holdings of banks to drop and hinder banks’ capacity to create loans.
4. It should be noted that the ability of banks to create loans is influenced by the amount of cash they hold in their vaults. This is because the cash position of a bank determines its ability to expand its loan book while keeping the risk of a bank run under control.
5. The digital rupee could also play a crucial role in India’s transition towards a cashless society. A rise in the use of the digital rupee could eventually free banks from having to maintain sufficient cash deposits before they expand their loan books. This could happen if digital rupee deposits turn out to be considered equivalent to other forms of virtual money such as deposits created initially as loans by banks. In such case, banks will be freed from the risk of bank runs which have traditionally served as a check on the unrestrained expansion of loan books.

Data Centre

1. 69 percentage of soil in Jharkhand’s forest areas that has turned unfit for plant growth due to acute deficiency of nitrogen, according to the Forest Soil Health Card report.
2. Indonesia’s Mount Semeru volcano.

Download pdf here