WPI represents the price of basket of goods at a wholesale stage i.e. goods that are sold in bulk and traded between organizations instead of consumers.
WPI is calculated by the Office of Economic Advisor, DIPP under Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The base year for the index is 2011-12.
The components of WPI include Primary articles, Manufacturing items, fuel and power with different weightages assigned to them.
The weightages are Primary Articles (Weight 22.62%), Fuel & Power (Weight 13.15%), and Manufactured Products (Weight 64.23%).
It basically indicates the rise in profitability of industries.
The annual rate of inflation is calculated based on monthly WPI.
WPI index for the month of November, 2017 rose to eight month high (3.93%).
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC)
OIC is an international organization founded in 1969, consisting of 57 member states.
Its administrative centre is located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Turkey currently holds the chairmanship of the organization.
India is not a member to this organisation.
The organisation works to safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony.
At the recently held summit in Turkey, it has declared “East Jerusalem” as the capital of Palestine, rejecting the US stance as “dangerous”.
Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana
The programme was launched to give access to cheap credit to poor and small fledgling businesspersons with the objective to provide self-employment.
Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency Ltd. [MUDRA] is an NBFC supporting development of micro enterprise sector.
Under the scheme, loans are given to non-farm income generating enterprises in manufacturing and trading and services whose credit needs are below Rs.10 lakh.
MUDRA provides refinance support to Banks / MFIs for lending to micro business.
Public sector, regional, rural, State and urban cooperative banks to eligible for refinancing from MUDRA.
Loans can be availed under three categories
Shishu for loans up to Rs.50,000;
Kishor for loans above Rs. 50,000 and up to Rs.5 lakh;
Tarun for loans above Rs.5 lakh and up to Rs.10 lakh.
Mudra debit cards are issued to borrowers. Using these, they can withdraw the loan from any ATM in India, as and when they need the money.
Union government has recently tasked Labour Bureau to carry out the survey to ascertain the number of jobs created under the scheme.
World Inequality Report
The report is published by World Inequality Lab, based at the Paris School of Economics, which aims to promote research on global inequality dynamics.
According to the report, since 1980, 27% of all new income worldwide was captured by the richest 1%, while the poorest 50% captured only 13% of growth.
It has highlighted the inequality prevailing in India and stated that the top 10% of the earners accounted for 56% of the income earned in 2014.
The report says that deregulation and opening-up reforms in India since 1980s have led to substantial increase in inequality.
Sakhi
National Workshop on Role of Sakhi was recently inaugurated by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
Sakhi is a one-stop centre for providing medical, legal and rehabilitation facilities for women subjected to any kind of violence.
These centres are focused to provide integrated support and assistance under one roof both in private and public spaces in a phased manner.
It focuses on strengthening of Multi Sectoral Response to violence faced by Women.
World Conference on Vedas
The conference is being held in New Delhi, inaugurated by Vice President.
It will have in-depth discussions on de-mystifying various myths and fallacies surrounding the Vedas and Manu Smriti.
A special session on the World Parliament and UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and declaration on human rights will be other salient features of the conference.
