Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has already made $ 1.5 bn worth of investments in India
MSMEs MCGS
The Centre introduced the scheme of the ‘Mutual Credit Guarantee Scheme to small and medium enterprises (MSMEs)’.
The Union Budget 2025-26 announced that it would boost the micro, small and medium enterprises.
The scheme enables collateral free advances to MSMEs through loans that would be availed at up to Rs 100 crores to buy plant and machinery or equipments.
This scheme would cover 60 per cent guarantee cover by the National Credit Guarantee Trustee Company Ltd (NCGTC) against the member lending institutions (MLIs) of a credit facility up to Rs 100 crores.
CG Scheme on e-NWRs
Centre introduced Credit Guarantee Scheme of e-NWR on the basis of Pledge financing (CGS-NPF).
This scheme gives a 1,000-crore corpus of post-harvest finance availed by farmers against the electronic negotiable warehouse receipts (e-NWRs).
Farmers will access loans even after depositing commodities in warehouses which have been accredited by Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA).
Ensure cover up to 85% up to Rs. 3L of loans.
The guaranteed loan amount ranges between 3 and 75 lakhs at the rate of 80 per cent loan to small and marginal farmers/women / SC ST / PwD.
Periodic Labour force survey 2025
In urban centres, the LFPR of the people aged 15 years and above has improved to 50.4% in quarter October -December, 2024 as compared to 49.9% in October -December, 2023.
The proportion of male of age 15 years and above in the urban area rose steadily by 1.3 percent during 2014 as compared to 2013 (74.1 percent to 75.4 percent).
In urban areas LFPR among female aged 15 years and above rose to 25.2% against the 25.0% in the prior year figure.
Among the persons aged 15 years and above, Unemployment Rate (UR) in urban areas reduced to 6.4 percent as compared to 6.5 percent.
The urinary among men above age 15 years was similar to 5.8 percent.
Among women of age 15 years and above, UR improved in the proportion of 8.6 % to 8.1%.
Quality of Public Expenditure (QPE) Index
RBI has been relying on statistics since 1991 when it developed the index on Quality of Public Expenditure to measure the success of the government in spending its funds.
The index measures the following based on composition of spending and its effect on long term growth of the economy.
Capital Outlay to GDP Ratio is the ratio of government spending on infrastructure and growth related project spending to GDP.
Revenue Expenditure to Capital Outlay Determines the ratio of the current operational costs to long-term investment.
Development Expenditure to GDP Ratio is a measure that monitors how people are spending publicly on healthcare, education, research, infrastructure and social welfare.
The Development Expenditure as a Percentage of Total Expenditure analyses the amount of the productive investments in the total government expenditures.
The ratio of interest payments to total government expenditure shows how heavy government debts are.
LNG imports India 2024
During 2024, imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by India have also been reported to be at the highest at 252.28 trillion cubic feet imported by India from the US.
It is about 7.14 billion cubic meters (BCM).
The last peak was in the year 2021 when Indian imported 5.56 BCM of LNG in the North American country.
In 2023 calendar year the US replaced the UAE, as the second largest LNG seller to India after Qatar.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
NVS-02 - 100th Mission at Sriharikota.
On 29 January 2025, ISRO launched its 100th mission, which was launched at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
The NVS-02 satellite attached to the GSLV-F15 took off the second launch pad at the spaceport.
NVS-02 is the second satellite of NVS.
GSLV-F15 is the 17th flight of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), and 11th flight with Indigenous Cryo stage.
It is the 8th Indian flight of GSLV with indigenous Cryogenic stage.
It was launched on August 10, 1979 (the early flight of the Satellite Launch Vehicle-3) (SLV-3 E10) carrying the Rohini Technology Payload.
World's 1st deep sea radar
According to Chinese scientists, the first seabed radar in the world was invented by them and could sense aircraft that were flying at high altitudes.
It would greatly improve the Chinese intelligence system and would make naval warfare in the future.
It is an underwater sound sensor array installed at the bottom of the sea at 1000 metres underwater.
It has even been known to detect and follow a fixed wing aircraft at an altitude of 5,000 metres.
China already has a satellite system that is able to monitor the position of aircrafts worldwide including US F-22 stealth fighters.
China's tokamak's new record
A Chinese experimental nuclear fusion reactor kept its reaction over 1,000 seconds or over 17 minutes, a record.
The energy of the Sun, or of any other star, is generated by nuclear fusion.
The JET laboratory based in the United Kingdom achieved a new record in