Domestic Systemically Important Banks

Context: RBI’s 2025 list continues SBI, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank as Domestic Systemically Important Banks, retaining their earlier systemic-risk buckets and CET1 surcharge levels.

• These banks maintain the same buckets as the previous year, reflecting stable systemic importance and continued monitoring by RBI.

About Domestic Systemically Important Banks (D-SIBs)

• Introduction: Domestic Systemically Important Banks are institutions whose failure could significantly disrupt the country’s financial system and economy due to their size, interconnectedness, and substitutability.
• Identified by:  Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under the D-SIB Framework issued in July 2014.
  • Annual assessment based on the banks’ Systemic Importance Scores (SISs).
• Criteria Used
  • Size of the bank (total exposures)
  • Interconnectedness within the financial system
  • Lack of substitutability for critical services
  • Complexity of operations
• D-SIB Bucketing Framework
  • Banks are placed in 5 buckets (1–5) based on systemic importance.
  • Each bucket carries an additional CET1 surcharge (0.20% to 1.00% fully phased in) above BASEL III norm of 7% of risk-weighted assets (RWA) as CET1.
  • Surcharge is in addition to the Capital Conservation Buffer (CCB).
  • Foreign G-SIBs operating in India must hold proportionate CET1 surcharge applicable globally.
• About CET1: Common Equity Tier 1: It represents the highest quality of regulatory capital, consisting mainly of:
  • Common shares
  • Stock surplus (share premium)
  • Retained earnings
  • Other comprehensive income
  • Certain regulatory adjustments

CET1 is used to absorb losses and is the core capital used to determine capital adequacy ratios like the CET1 ratio.

Significance

• Enhances financial system resilience and protects against contagion risks.
• Strengthens oversight of institutions whose distress could threaten macroeconomic stability.

New Criteria for “Small Company”

Context: The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) revised the financial thresholds for defining a “small company” to expand ease-of-doing-business benefits to a wider segment of firms.

Revised MCA Thresholds for Small Companies

• Higher Paid-Up Capital Limit: The government increased the paid-up capital threshold to ₹4 crore, up from the earlier limit of ₹2 crore.
• Higher Turnover Limit: The annual turnover ceiling for classification as a small company has been raised to ₹40 crore, compared to the previous limit of ₹20 crore.
• Wider Coverage for Growing Firms: The revision enables more companies—especially start-ups and early-stage enterprises—to retain simplified compliance norms even during their growth phase.
• Flexibility Under Companies Act: The Companies Act empowers the government to raise these limits up to ₹10 crore paid-up capital and ₹100 crore turnover, depending on economic trends.

Key Benefits for Small Companies

• Reduced Compliance Burden: Small companies enjoy simplified reporting, lower penalties, and ease in meeting annual return filing requirements, which can be signed by a company secretary or even a director.
• Relaxed Audit Requirements: Auditors of small companies are exempted from reporting on the adequacy of internal financial controls and the operating effectiveness of such controls.
• Simplified Financial Statements: Small companies are not required to prepare cash flow statements and can file abridged annual returns.
• Lesser Corporate Governance Rigour: Small companies need to hold only two board meetings annually and face no mandatory auditor rotation norms.

Conclusion

• The enhanced thresholds strengthen India’s ease-of-doing-business framework by reducing regulatory load on small enterprises, supporting entrepreneurship, and promoting broader economic growth, especially in rural and start-up sectors.

Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) Navratna Status

Context: Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL) became the 27th Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) to receive  Navratna Status.

About Numaligarh Refinery 

• Numaligarh Refinery Limited is a 3 MMTPA petroleum refinery located in Golaghat district, Assam, established to meet the energy needs of the Northeast.
  • It has demonstrated strong financial performance with a turnover of ₹25,147 crore and net profit of ₹1,608 crore in FY 2024–25.
• The company is promoted by Oil India Limited with a 69.63% stake, along with the Assam Government (26%) and Engineers India Limited (4.37%).
• NRL is currently implementing major expansion projects such as the Numaligarh Refinery Expansion Project (NREP) and operating a bamboo-based 2G bioethanol plant supporting green energy transition.

Benefits of Navratna Status 

• Financial and Operational Autonomy: NRL can invest up to ₹1,000 crore or 15% of its net worth without approval and independently form JVs, subsidiaries, and pursue mergers or acquisitions.
• Enhanced Managerial Flexibility: Navratna status empowers faster decision-making in HR, capital expenditure, and strategic operations, improving efficiency and competitiveness.
• Improved Market and Investor Confidence: Greater autonomy strengthens investor trust, widens global opportunities, and accelerates NRL’s long-term growth.

Criteria for CPSE Classification 

• Maharatna: Requires Navratna status, stock-exchange listing, and three-year averages of turnover above ₹25,000 crore, net worth above ₹15,000 crore, and net profit above ₹5,000 crore, enabling the highest investment autonomy.
• Navratna: Requires Miniratna Category-I status, “Excellent/Very Good” MoU ratings for three of the last five years, and a minimum composite score of 60/100 for moderate autonomy.
• Miniratna Category-I: Requires a pre-tax profit of over ₹30 crore in at least one of the last three years and a positive net worth.
• Miniratna Category-II: Requires profit in the last three consecutive years and a positive net worth.

Alaknanda Galaxy

Context: Indian astronomers have discovered Alaknanda, a well-formed spiral galaxy from 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang.

About Alaknanda Galaxy

• Alaknanda is an early-universe spiral galaxy located nearly 12 billion light-years away, exhibiting structural maturity unexpected for its cosmic age.
• Discovered By: Researchers at National Centre for Radio Astrophysics – Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (NCRA-TIFR), Pune.
• Data Used: Researchers used high-resolution infrared observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), aided by gravitational lensing near the Abell 2744 galaxy cluster, to analyse 21 photometric filters.

Key Features of Alaknanda

• Well-defined spiral structure: The galaxy possesses two distinct spiral arms and a bright central bulge spanning 30,000 light-years, resembling the Milky Way.
• Rapid Star Formation: Alaknanda forms stars at nearly 60 solar masses per year, far exceeding the current Milky Way’s rate.
  • The current star formation rate of the Milky Way is approximately 1.5 to 2.0 solar masses per year.
• Massive Early Assembly: It accumulated nearly 10 billion solar masses within a short cosmic period, indicating unexpectedly fast galactic growth.

Significance of the Discovery

• Challenges existing galaxy-formation models: Its orderly structure disproves assumptions that early galaxies were chaotic, clumpy and unstable.
• Rewrites cosmic evolution timelines: The discovery suggests that mature disk galaxies formed far earlier than predicted, prompting a reassessment of early-universe physics.
• Enables Future Research: The finding sets the stage for JWST and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) based studies to explore Alaknanda’s rotation, gas dynamics and formation mechanisms.

Malaria Parasites Movement

Context: A new Nature Physics study explains how malaria parasites use stable Crock-Screw like helical motion to travel efficiently through human skin.

About Malaria Parasites

• Malaria parasites are Plasmodium species transmitted by the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes.
• Site of Infection: After entering the skin, sporozoites move to blood capillaries, travel to the liver, multiply, and later infect red blood cells by release of merozoites.
  • Sporozoites are the infective motile forms of the malaria parasite.
  • Merozoites are the parasitic forms released from liver cells after sporozoite multiplication.
• Cause of Malaria: Disease occurs when merozoites released from the liver invade red blood cells, causing cyclical fever, anaemia, and systemic inflammation.

Key Findings on movement

• Helical Navigation for Stability: Malaria sporozoites move along right-handed helical paths, using internal coloured noise (Ornstein–Uhlenbeck pattern) to maintain orientation despite biological fluctuations.
• Enhanced Travel Efficiency: Mathematical modelling shows helical motion enables parasites to cover greater effective distances than straight-moving microbes, making them functionally “straighter than straight lines.”
• Optimised Capillary Targeting: Their helix pitch (~13 µm) and radius (~3 µm) match capillary geometry, helping them loop around vessels efficiently and improving chances of reaching the liver.

Biomedical & Technological Implications: Understanding this mechanism can inspire design of medical microbots using controlled rotational movement for improved navigation through complex tissue environments.

Cyber Slavery

Context: India has witnessed a sharp surge in incidents of Cyber Slavery, with over 300 Indians recently repatriated from Myanmar alone.

About Cyber Slavery

• Cyber slavery refers to the trafficking of individuals who are coerced into executing online fraud, phishing, investment scams, and extortion activities in controlled, call-centre-style compounds.
• How It Operates: Victims are lured with lucrative job offers (IT, data entry, customer service), transported to countries like Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, or Laos, and then moved to illegal scam centres where their passports are confiscated and movement restricted.
• Forms of Cyber Slavery
• • Forced Cyber Fraud: Conducting online scams targeting global victims.
  • High-Pressure Scam Operations: Pushing fraudulent investment schemes through social engineering.
  • Tech-Enabled Coercion: Surveillance, threats, and physical abuse to enforce compliance.

Why Cyber Slavery is Rising in Southeast Asia

• Presence of Armed Groups and Weak Governance: Regions in Myanmar and Cambodia host rebel factions that fund themselves through human trafficking and scam centres amid poor law enforcement.
• Post-Covid Economic Stress: Casinos and betting hubs, previously legal businesses, were converted into cyber-fraud centres due to the economic downturn.
• Lax Immigration Rules: Visa-on-arrival policies and corruption enable easy movement of traffickers and victims across borders.
• Targeted Luring of South Asian Job Seekers: High unemployment and attractive salaries (₹80,000–₹1 lakh) make Indian youth particularly vulnerable.

Jiyo Parsi Scheme

Context: Recently, the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA) in collaboration with the Maharashtra State Minority Development Department, organised a comprehensive Advocacy and Outreach Workshop at the Convocation Hall, Mumbai University, to promote and amplify the Jiyo Parsi Scheme.

About Jiyo Parsi Scheme

• It is a flagship initiative aimed at supporting the Parsi community in increasing its population through assisted childbirth and family welfare interventions.
• Launch: In 2013-2014.
• Nodal Ministry and Funding: The scheme is a Central Sector Scheme, meaning it is 100% funded by the Ministry of Minority Affairs (MoMA).
• Implementation: The scheme is implemented in collaboration with partner organizations like the Parzor Foundation and local Parsi Panchayats.
• Research: The International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS) has been engaged by MoMA to conduct an in-depth, evidence-based study on the scheme’s demographic impact.
• Key Components and Interventions: 
  • Medical Assistance: Provides financial aid for addressing fertility issues, including support for Assisted Reproductive Technologies (ART) like In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), Intra Cytoplasmic Sperm Injection (ICSI), and surrogacy, up to a maximum prescribed limit.
  • Advocacy: Focuses on counselling for fertility issues, late marriage, and family planning, and conducts workshops and outreach campaigns. 
  • Health of Community (HoC): Offers financial support for family welfare, including Childcare Assistance (monthly support for Parsi couples with children up to age 18) and Elderly Assistance (monthly support for the care of dependent elderly family members aged 60 years or more).
• Digital Transformation and Economic Empowerment: The scheme has evolved, integrating technology and broader welfare initiatives:
  • Digital Transformation: Beneficiaries can now complete key formalities, including biometric authentication, via a dedicated mobile application. 
  • Economic Empowerment Link: The National Minorities Development & Finance Corporation (NMDFC) participates in outreach, informing community members about easy and affordable loan schemes available for entrepreneurship, start-ups, and small businesses, linking demographic support with livelihood needs.
  • Mode of Transfer: Through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) mode.
• Parsi Community Demographic Context:
  • The Need: The Parsi population declined sharply to 57,264 in the 2011 Census, due to low birth rate, late marriages, and high emigration.
  • Success Indicator: The scheme has successfully facilitated the birth of over 400 Parsi children since its inception (as of mid-2023 data).

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