Economics in News

1. Urban Mining: A large amount of e-waste is generated every year which contains large volume of metals such as gold, silver, copper, rare earth metals etc. E-waste is recycled to obtain these metals. This concept of regaining these metals is called urban mining. Recycling of e-waste is a good alternative to extract metals as it is cost effective and labour extensive.

2. Indian Ports association launches ‘PCS 1x’

Indian Ports Association (IPA), under the guidance of Ministry of Shipping launched the Port Community System ‘PCS1x’. ‘PCS 1x’ is a cloud based new generation technology, with user-friendly interface. The platform offers value added services such as notification engine, workflow, mobile application, track and trace, better user interface, better security features, improved inclusion by offering dashboard for those with no IT capability. A unique feature of ‘PCS1x’ is that it can latch on to third party software which provides services to the maritime industry thereby enabling the stakeholders to access wide network of services. The system enables single sign on facility to provide one stop interface to all the functionalities across all stakeholders. Another major feature is the deployment of a world class state of the art payment aggregator solution which removes dependency on bank specific payment eco system.

3. Inverted yield curve: The inverted yield curve is a graph that shows that younger treasury bond yields are yielding more interest than older ones. Recently, a section of the U.S. Treasury yield curve has moved into inversion. As US treasury yield bonds are seemed to be one of the most stable bonds, hence fluctuation and yield curve inversion is a classic signal that a recession is coming.

4. ENSURE Portal: The portal “ENSURE”- National Livestock Mission-EDEG is developed by NABARD and is operated under the Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying & Fisheries. Under program “Entrepreneurship Development and Employment Generation” (EDEG), subsidy payment for activities related to poultry, small ruminants, pigs etc. is paid through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). Ensure portal will bring transparency in process of transferring subsidy.

5. Cabinet approves expansion of beneficiaries list under Pradhan Mantri UjjwalaYojana

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by the Prime Minister cleared the proposal of Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas to release deposit free LPG connections to poor families, who have not been considered earlier for release of LPG connections under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) on account of their names not been covered either in Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) list or the seven identified categories i.e. SC/STs households, beneficiaries of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) (Gramin), Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY), Forest dwellers, Most Backward Classes (MBC), Tea & Ex-Tea Garden Tribes, people residing in Islands / river islands, whose names did not appear in the SECC list.