CURRENT AFFAIRS Month of DECEMBER-2019 Plot-1441, Opp. IOCL Petrol Pump, CRP Square, Bhubaneswar Ph : 8093083555, 8984111101 Web : www.vanikias.com | E-mail : [email protected] www.facebook.com/vanikias CURRENT AFFAIRS – DECEMBER–2019 CURRENT AFFAIRS ANALYST VOL-1 (DECEMBER, 2019) CONTENTS Section - A: MAINS CURRENT AFFAIRS Area of GS Topics in News Page No. Exchange Traded Fund 04 . India’s solar energy challenges 08 ECONOMY . National Digital Health Blueprint 2019 11 . Understanding GST in present economic context 13 INTERNATIONAL . South China Sea – Conflict, Issues, Problems and 17 RELATION challenges INTERNAL . Anti-Tank Guided Missiles 21 SECURITY POLITY & . Countrywide NRC- Its Implications 23 GOVERNANCE SOCIAL ISSUES . Begging in India: A Menace to the Society 25 Section - B: PRELIMS CURRENT AFFAIRS Area of GS Topics in News Page No. ECONOMY . Leaked NSSO data 29 . National Milk Day 2019 30 ENVIRONMENT . Emissions Gap Report 2019 31 DISASTER . 1st International Conference on “Landslides Risk 32 MANAGEMENT Reduction & Resilience-2019” GOVERNMENT . Atal Beemit Vyakti Kalyan Yojana 33 SCHEME GEOGRAPHY . Char Dham Programme 34 . Global diplomacy index 2019 35 . Lokpal 38 POLITY & GOVERNANCE . Transgender Persons Bill, 2019 39 . What is Rule 12, used by the Centre to revoke President’s 40 Rule in Maharashtra 1 POLITY & . World Migration Report 2020 and the trend of migration 41 GOVERNANCE globally . Coalbed methane (CBM) 42 SCIENCE & . Golden Rice: To Combat Vitamin A Deficiency for TECHNOLOGY 43 Public Health ********** 2 CURRENT AFFAIRS – DECEMBER–2019 SECTION: A (MAINS) CURRENT AFFAIRS 3 CURRENT AFFAIRS – DECEMBER–2019 EXCHANGE TRADED FUND CONTEXT . Edelweiss AMC recently got the government’s permission to launch India’s first bond ETF (exchange traded fund) which will invest in central public sector undertakings. ◉ BACKGROUND œ ETFs offer low expense ratios and fewer broker commissions than buying the stocks individually. œ Soon, Bond ETFs will be another investment vehicle œ ETFs can contain all types of investments available to retail investors providing access to bonds of state-run enterprises. including stocks, commodities, or bonds; some œ Bond ETFs are similar to how equity ETFs invest offer domestic holdings only, while others are in line with indices covering specific baskets like international. the Nifty50, Nifty Next 50 and Nifty Quality 30, What are Bond ETFs? among others œ Bond ETFs are a type of ETF that exclusively œ While bond ETFs are not new in India, they have invests in bonds. Bond ETFs invest in various not been very popular. At present, only three GSec fixed-income securities such as corporate bonds, ETFs are available, all with miniscule assets and treasuries, municipal, international, high-yield, etc. poor trading volumes. œ Bond ETFs are passively managed and trade, œ The entry of newer bond ETFs comes at a time much like stock ETFs on major stock exchanges. when traditional bond funds are only just emerging This helps promote market stability by adding from a painful period of multiple credit defaults. liquidity and transparency during times of Investors are wary. stress. œ Bond ETFs claim to be different from traditional œ Bond ETFs allow ordinary investors to gain passive bond funds by offering high liquidity, exposure to benchmark bond indices in an transparency and lower costs. inexpensive way. œ The cost angle is the most distinguishing facet of œ Investors of bond ETFs are exposed to the risk of bond ETFs. Being passively managed products, interest rate changes. these charge a much lower fee than actively managed bond funds. Sometimes even less than œ Bond ETFs are typically of two types: They either 0.5%. track a specific maturity bucket like short, medium or long term or they track a target maturity where œ In the debt segment, there is not much the fund they invest in bonds with similar maturity as the manager can do to enhance returns. Any strategy product. that can optimise costs is the need of the hour. > Target Maturity Bond ETFs: They provide œ Globally, Bond ETFs have reported a healthy predictable returns like Fixed Maturity Plans 4 CURRENT AFFAIRS – DECEMBER–2019 growth over the last decade. The size of Global (FMPs), if they are held till maturity. Bond ETFs now accounts for over $1 trillion assets Other type of ETFS under management (AUM) out of total $4 trillion AUM across various ETFs. œ Market ETFs: Designed to track a particular index like the NIFTY. œ The key objectives of launching Bond ETF are: œ Sector and industry ETFs: Designed to provide > To suffice borrowing needs of CPSEs exposure to a particular industry, such as oil, > To increase retail participation pharmaceuticals, or high technology. > To deepen the bond market and increase œ Commodity ETFs: Designed to track the price of a liquidity commodity, such as gold, oil, or corn. What are ETFs? œ Style ETFs: Designed to track an investment style œ An exchange-traded fund (ETF) is a marketable or market capitalization focus, such as large-cap security, meaning it has an associated price that value or small-cap growth. allows it to be easily bought and sold. œ Foreign market ETFs: Designed to track non- œ ETFs are in many ways similar to mutual funds; Indian markets, such as US’s Dollar 30 or Dow however, they are listed on exchanges and ETF Jones Industrial Average (DJIA). shares trade throughout the day just like œ Inverse ETFs: Designed to profit from a decline in ordinary stock. the underlying market or index. 5 CURRENT AFFAIRS – DECEMBER–2019 œ Actively managed ETFs: Designed to outperform > The liquidity in bond ETFs will depend on how an index, unlike most ETFs, which are designed to actively market makers buy and sell units on track an index. the exchange in bulk. œ Exchange-traded notes: In essence, debt > This will allow the investor to fetch a purchase securities backed by the creditworthiness of the or sale price closer to the fair value of the ETF, issuing bank; created to provide access to illiquid as indicated by its net asset value (NAV). markets and have the added benefit of generating œ Increasing participation: In India, retail virtually no short-term capital gains taxes. participation in corporate bond market is shallow œ Alternative investment ETFs: Innovative due to structural challenges like poor accessibility, structures, such as ETFs that allow investors to lack of transparency and awareness. Bond ETFs can trade volatility or gain exposure to a particular address these challenges and can play an important investment strategy, such as currency carry or role in increasing retail investor participation in covered call writing. corporate bond market. Benefits Disadvantages œ Lower Costs: An investor who buys an ETF doesn’t œ Several ETFs in India are plagued by crippling have to pay an advisory/management fee to the illiquidity. In the absence of trading volumes, fund manager and taxes are relatively lower in investors often end up buying or selling at a steep ETFs. premium, or discount to the prevailing NAV. œ Lower Holding Costs: As commodity ETFs are œ While lower cost enhances the return potential of widely traded in, there isn’t any physical delivery ETFs, absence of liquidity can effectively wipe of commodity. The investor is just provided with out cost benefits. Conventional bond funds do an ETF certificate, similar to a stock certificate. not face these issues. œ Exposure to debt market: Bond ETFs are a cost- > If evidence is to go by, the initial liquidity in effective way for investors to take debt-market these products will be low, restricting investor’s exposure. ability to move in and out at a desired price. œ Tax considerations: ETFs tend to be very tax > If the ETFs are not able to amass a decent efficient and ideal for holding in taxable accounts. > However, if the ETF’s portfolio generates Since ETFs don’t sell shares very often and their dividend income, this income is taxable. portfolio turnover is very low, it is very rare for œ Transparency: The entire portfolio held them to generate a taxable distribution for their by the bond ETF is disclosed on a daily basis shareholders. to investors. > IETFs also have the option of making an “in- > This is unlike conventional bond funds kind” distribution to shareholders if they want which disclose portfolios at the end of to sell themselves and want the cash. every month. 6 CURRENT AFFAIRS – DECEMBER–2019 > Further, since bond ETFs are listed on exchanges, from movements in interest rates or credit they provide live price updates after every spreads. trade. Conclusion corpus size, poor liquidity will continue. C œ To conclude, ETFs offer both tax efficiency as well œ Bond ETFs cannot assure return to investors any as lower transaction and management costs. Bond more than conventional bond funds, except certain ETFs combine the best of both bonds and debt categories of bond ETFs such as target maturity bond funds. Indians invest a substantial portion of their ETFs which have a defined maturity date. savings in fixed income instruments such as small œ Unlike actively managed bond funds, bond ETFs will not savings schemes, fixed deposits, bonds and various be in a position to gain from opportunities emerging types of fixed income mutual funds. If liquidity is œ Liquid: Being listed on the exchanges, bond ETFs sufficiently high, bond ETFs may be a good first also claim to offer liquidity—ability to buy and sell stop for those looking to move from bank fixed units instantly—for the investor. deposits. ********** 7 CURRENT AFFAIRS – DECEMBER–2019 INDIA’S SOLAR ENERGY CHALLENGES CONTEXT . The Prime Minister recently committed to setting up 450 gigawatts (GW) of non -fossil fuel power by 2022. India is determined to be the world’s greatest solar energy success story, but caught in an economic slowdown, India’s clean energy transition is likely to not go as per the plan.