Banking, Financial and Economic Awareness of 06 and 07 May 2020

By PendulumEdu | Last Modified: 09 May 2020 20:17 PM IST

1. Facebook forms oversight board and $130 million fund

Facebook has formed an oversight board to oversee the content on its platform and $130 million fund to provide money for the functioning of oversight board.
The board will make decisions about the content to be permitted or removed on the platform of Facebook.
The board has 20 members. They include independent experts from different fields.
The board contains only one member from India. His name is Sudhir Krishnaswamy.
Other important members are Alan Rusbridger, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, András Sajó, Tawakkol Karman and Afia Asantewaa Asare-Kyei.
Currently, Facebook's content moderation teams do not work for removing individual content pieces posted on its platform.
So, Facebook only removes deceptive or manipulative pages or accounts. The oversight board will work on individual content pieces also.
The board will get 90 days to look at a content piece. The board members will not be employees of Facebook. Facebook cannot remove them. They will only receive payment from fund created by Facebook.

As per provisional data compiled by Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA), India’s imports of edible oil saw a decrease of 34% in April 2020.
In April 2020, India's imports stood at 790,377 tonnes. Main reason for decline in imports is logistics related disturbances caused by Covid-19 lockdown.
SEA data also show that Crude Palm Oil (CPO) and Crude Palm Kernel Oil (CPKO) declined by 14% between November 2019 and April 2020.
As per SEA, decline in demand from Hotel, Restaurant, Cafe (HoReCa) segment during lockdown is the reason for decline in imports.

As per International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC), cotton consumption at global level may decrease by 11.8% in 2020-21.
The decrease may affect cotton cultivators in India negatively as India is the largest producer of cotton.
COVID-19 lockdown, unemployment and changes in labour market have affected the consumption of cotton.
Due to decline in consumption, cotton prices are estimated at lower level of 56.9 cents per pound in 2020-21.
ICAC has found that cotton growing area in India will decline to 12 million hectares from 12.7 million hectares in 2019-20 and cotton yield in India will decrease due to steps taken against Covid -19 spread.
Globally, area under cotton cultivation will decline by 4% in 2020-21.
ICAC:
- It is an association formed by governments of countries, which produce, consume or trade cotton.
- It has 29 members. It was formed in September, 1939.
- It is headquartered in Washington DC.
Cotton:
- It is a fibre crop and cash crop.
- It is mainly grown in 10 states of India.
- Gujarat and Maharashtra are top cotton producing states.
- It is a Kharif crop. It is mainly grown in black (regur) soils.

Karnataka Vikas Grameen Bank (KVGB) has started ₹50,000 worth emergency loan facility to help farmers in meeting unexpected costs.
The maximum amount of loan is fixed at ₹50,000. The farmers should repay loan within three years. The loan can be availed by all eligible farmers.
The bank is aiming to provide Rs 3,700 crore in the form of agriculture credit in 2020-21.
KVGB is a regional rural bank. It is headquartered in Dharwad, Karnataka. Canara Bank sponsors KVGB.

Tarun Bajaj has been nominated as director on RBI's central board.
Currently, he is serving as secretary of department of economic affairs in Ministry of Finance.
The post was vacant as Atanu Chakraborty has retired on April 30.
RBI's central board of directors has 21 members, including governor and 4 deputy governors.
Along with governor and four deputy governors, the central board of directors include economic affairs secretary and financial services secretary as two representatives of finance ministry.