PM IAS MARCH 16 EDITORIAL

Coronal Mass Ejections:

GS Paper 3: Awareness in space

Context:

A simple approach for distinguishing the continuous backdrop of the Solar Corona from the dynamic corona has been devised by Indian researchers.
The Aryabhatta Research Institute and the Indian Institute of Astrophysics collaborated on the development of this technology.

What is the technique? (NOT MUCH RELEVANT FROM THE EXAMINATION POINT OF VIEW).

The straightforward method of eliminating the constant background can increase the efficiency with which Coronal Mass Ejections are detected (CME).

What are Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) and how do they occur?

Large expulsions of plasma and magnetic field from the Sun’s corona are referred to as Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs).
These storms have the capability of ejecting billions of tonnes of coronal material and transporting an embedded magnetic field (frozen in flux) that is greater than the baseline solar wind interplanetary magnetic field (IMF).

Speed:

CMEs are charged particles that fly outward from the Sun at speeds ranging from less than 250 kilometres per second (km/s) to almost 3,000 kilometres per second (kilometres per second).
It can take as little as 15-18 hours for the fastest Earth-directed CMEs to reach our planet. CMEs that travel at a slower rate might take many days to reach their destinations.
As they travel away from the Sun, CMEs grow in size, and the largest of them can cover over a quarter of the distance between Earth and the Sun by the time they reach our planet.

Impacts:

Increased NPAs in MSMEs

GS Paper – 3 Growth & Development, Mobilization of Resources, Industrial Policy.

Why is it in the news?

However, in spite of a slew of loan restructuring plans and packages offered by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as well as the government, the Covid epidemic has had a devastating impact on Micro, Small, and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs).
In the first nine months of 2021, gross non-performing assets (NPAs) of SMEs (loans that have been defaulted on by these businesses) increased by Rs 20,000 crore, reaching Rs 165,732 crore from Rs 145,673 crore in September 2020.
Bad loans to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) currently account for 9.6 percent of total advances of Rs 17.33 lakh crore, compared to 8.2 percent in September 2020.
Previously, the Ministry of MSME announced the introduction of the MSME Innovative Scheme (Incubation, Design, and Intellectual Property Rights) as well as the MSME IDEA HACKATHON 2022.

What was the impact of Covid on small and medium-sized enterprises?

The increase in bad loans occurred despite the fact that the Reserve Bank of India announced four loan restructuring initiatives for MSMEs in January 2019, February 2020, August 2020, and May 2021, among other things.
As many as 24.51 lakh MSME accounts worth Rs 1,16,332 crore in loans were restructured as a result of the implementation of these initiatives. Loans of Rs 51,467 crore were restructured under the terms of a circular issued by the Reserve Bank of India in May 2021.
As one of the most severely affected industries by the Covid pandemic, thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were forced to close their doors or become ill when the government declared a statewide rigorous lockdown in March 2020 in response to the outbreak.

What were the initiatives that were implemented to revitalise the MSMEs?

In order to resurrect activity, the Reserve Bank of India and the government implemented a number of initiatives, including the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS), which extended unsecured loans worth Rs 3 lakh crore to MSMEs and firms.
Also approved by the RBI was the extension of the scheme for one-time restructuring of loans to MSMEs without a downgrade in asset classification, as well as the classification of bank lending to NBFCs (non-banking financial companies-other than MFIs) for on-lending to agriculture, MSMEs, and housing as Priority Sector Lending (PSL).
Thousands of units that were already in default were not benefited by the restructuring plans and packages that were implemented.
This is owing to the fact that, in order to be eligible for the ECLGS plan, borrower accounts have to be less than or equal to 60 days past due as of February 29th, 2019.
According to the Reserve Bank of India’s Financial Stability Report, loans to the MSME segment has slowed (year-on-year) at the end of September 2021 when compared to the beginning of March 2021.
The reduction was notably visible in the ticket size of less than Rs 25 crore across major banking organisations.

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