Unemployment at 45-year high, revealed by a leaked NSSO report

  • The NSSO report, as reported by Business Standard, says that the job survey showed the unemployment in India stands at 6.1% in 2017-18.
  • This unemployment rate has touched a 45-year high and is the first such report to be published after the demonitisation drive.
  • The 2011-12 report had put the unemployment rate at 2.2%.
  • The report highlights that the rate of unemployment among youth is higher than the general population and the labour force participation declined to 36.9% in 2017-18 from 39.5% in 2011-12.
  • Two National Statistical Commission members had resigned last week alleging that the government is not publishing the survey which they had readied in December 2018.

ICICI Bank fires Chandra Kochhar for code of conduct violation

  • ICICI Bank’s said that an independent inquiry done by Justice BN Srikrishna concluded that former CEO Kochhar had violated the bank’s code of conduct and there was a lack of diligence in her disclosures.
  • The Bank said that it will stop all the unpaid benefits to the former CEO and has asked Kochhar to return all the bonuses paid to her from April 2009 to March 2018.
  • Kochhar is under CBI investigation for loans given to Videocon group in 2012 worth Rs. 3,250 crore. CBI had filed an FIR against Chanda Kochhar, Deepak Kochhar, and Venugopal Dhoot (Videocon CEO) last week.
  • Chandra Kochhar released a statement stating that she is disappointed and shocked at the bank’s decision.

February 1st budget will be an interim one, clarifies finance ministry

  • There were reports that the government is planning to table a full-fledged budget for the whole year.
  • The opposition had criticised the government and had termed the move as unconstitutional as the country is set to face an election in May of 2019.
  • The clarification was issued by Piyush Goyal who is temporarily handling the finance ministry in the absence of Arun Jaitley.

United States’ Midwest region hit with record cold wave generated by Polar Vortex

  • State of Emergency was declared in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois after record temperatures of up to -54 degree Celsius was recorded in some regions of Midwest in United States of America.
  • More than 20 million people are expected to experience temperatures below -25 degree Celsius in the next few days.
  • Experts say that the phenomenon of polar vortex is causing the extreme temperatures.