About the conference: The event, held once in three years, is dedicated to Hindi language. It sees participation from Hindi scholars, writers and laureates from different parts of the world who contribute to the language.

Key facts for Prelims: The decision to organize the 11th edition of the Conference in Mauritius was taken at the 10th World Hindi Conference held in Bhopal, India in September 2015. The first World Hindi Conference was held in 1975 in Nagpur, India. Since then, ten such Conferences have been held in different parts of the world.

The MEA has also set up the World Hindi Secretariat in Mauritius. The main objective of the WHS is to promote Hindi as an international language and further its cause for recognition at the United Nations as an Official Language.

What is PCA? PCA norms allow the regulator to place certain restrictions such as halting branch expansion and stopping dividend payment. It can even cap a bank’s lending limit to one entity or sector. Other corrective action that can be imposed on banks include special audit, restructuring operations and activation of recovery plan. Banks’ promoters can be asked to bring in new management, too. The RBI can also supersede the bank’s board, under PCA.

When is PCA invoked? The PCA is invoked when certain risk thresholds are breached. There are three risk thresholds which are based on certain levels of asset quality, profitability, capital and the like. The third such threshold, which is maximum tolerance limit, sets net NPA at over 12% and negative return on assets for four consecutive years.

What are the types of sanctions? There are two type of restrictions, mandatory and discretionary. Restrictions on dividend, branch expansion, directors compensation, are mandatory while discretionary restrictions could include curbs on lending and deposit. In the cases of two banks where PCA was invoked after the revised guidelines were issued — IDBI Bank and UCO Bank — only mandatory restrictions were imposed. Both the banks breached risk threshold 2.

What will a bank do if PCA is triggered? Banks are not allowed to re new or access costly deposits or take steps to increase their fee-based income. Banks will also have to launch a special drive to reduce the stock of NPAs and contain generation of fresh NPAs. They will also not be allowed to enter into new lines of business. RBI will also impose restrictions on the bank on borrowings from interbank market.

For the first time, eSports, a form of competition using video games, and canoe polo will be contested as demonstration sports. This will be the second time that Indonesia hosts the Asian Games. This will be the first time that the Asian Games will be held in two cities – Jakarta and Palembang.

About Asian Games: The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years between athletes from all over Asia. Since 1982, the Games have been organised by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA).

Prior to that, the Games were regulated by the Asian Games Federation (AGF). The Games are the second largest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games.

The last edition of the Games was hosted by Incheon, South Korea in October 2014.

· To promote Gas based economy and development of eastern India, 2650 km long Jagdishpur – Haldia & Bokaro – Dhamra Natural Gas Pipeline Project, popularly known as Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga, is being executed

· A capital grant of Rs. 5,176 Crore (40 per cent of the estimated capital cost of Rs. 12,940 Crore) approved.

· Will cater to energy requirements of five states, covering 40 districts and 2,600 villages

· Will revive three large fertilizer plants-Sindri, Gorakhpur & Sindri, enable industrialization of over 20 cities and development of city gas network in 7 cities, thereby generating large numbers of jobs.

In the first phase of Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) programme, Government has built SPR facilities with a total capacity of 5.33 MMT at three locations viz. Vishakhapatnam (1.33 MMT), Mangalore (1.5 MMT) and Padur (2.5 MMT) through the Special Purpose Vehicle i.e. Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserve Ltd (ISPRL). The total reserve of Phase-I of SPR is currently estimated to supply approximately 10 days of India’s crude requirement according to the consumption during 2016-17 (194.2 MMT).

Under 2nd phase, feasibility creating two additional SPRs at Chandikhol in Odisha (4 MMT) and Padur in Karnataka (2.5 MMT) on PPP mode is being explored.