Day: June 12, 2022

Bad Bank

A bad bank is a financial entity set up to buy non performing assets (NPAs), or bad loans, from banks. It is not involved in lending and taking deposits, but helps commercial banks clean up their balance sheets and resolve bad loans.It buys bad debtors of a bank at a mutually agreed value and attempts to recover the debts or associated securities by itself.

The aim of setting up a bad bank is to help ease the burden on banks by taking bad loans off their balance sheets and get them to lend again to customers without constraints. After the purchase of a bad loan from a bank, the bad bank may later try to restructure and sell the NPA to investors who might be interested in purchasing it. A bad bank makes a profit in its operations if it manages to sell the loan at a price higher than what it paid to acquire the loan from a commercial bank. A supposed advantage in setting up a bad bank is that it can help consolidate all bad loans of banks under a single exclusive entity. The one time transfer of assets out of the balance sheets will relieve banks of their assets out of bank’s balance sheets will relieve banks of their stressed assets and allow them to focus on their core business of lending. Banks with clean balance sheets can mobilize fresh capital from the market and improve their credit growth, which is crucial for spurring investments. Bad banks would also give an impetus to India’s economic growth , which has been affected by heightened risk aversion arising from the unbridled growth in NPAs . And the bad bank will unlock trapped capital, which will be a net positive for the economy in the long term. The idea of a bad bank has been tried out in countries such as the U.S.,Germany, Japan and others in the past. Some experts believe that by taking bad loans off banks, a bad bank can free capital of over ₹ 5 lakh crore that is locked in by banks as provisions against these bad loans. This will give banks the freedom to use the freed customers.

It is argued that creating a bad bank is just shifting the problem from one place to another.Without fundamental reforms to solve the NPA problem, the bad bank is likely to become a warehouse for bad loans without any recovery taking place. An important concern is regarding mobilizing capital for the bad bank. In an economy hit by the pandemic, it is hard to find buyers for distressed assets and the Government is also in a tight fiscal position. There is no clear procedure to determine at what price and which loans should be transferred to the bad banks.

Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan was cautious about the idea of a bad bank in which banks held a majority stake. In his book ‘I Do What I Do,’ the celebrated economist and banker had pointed out that if a bad bank was in the public sector, the reluctance to act would merely be shifted to the bad bank.

Sources : The Hindu, Drishti IAS , Wikipedia

The Radium Girl- Marie Curie

One of the most recognizable figures in science, “Madame Curie” has captured the public imagination for more than 100 years and inspired generations of women scientists.

Marie Sklodowska Curie (1867–1934) was the first person ever to receive two Nobel Prizes, the first person to win in two different fields. The first in 1903 in physics, shared with Pierre Curie (her husband) and Henri Becquerel for the discovery of the phenomenon of radioactivity, and the second in 1911 in chemistry for the discovery of the radioactive elements polonium and radium.

Curie was best known for her work in radioactivity which had saved a millions of lives during the first world war and ultimately led her own death.

Mary Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland under the control of the Russian Empire on November-07,1867. She was the youngest child of teachers. Her mother, Bronislawa Sklodowska was the head teacher of the prestigious boarding school specially for girls. Her father, Wladyslaw Sklodowski taught physics and Mathematics and was proud of his Polish heritage. As a result of his patriotism, his russian supervisors forced him into lower-paying positions. He also lost his savings through a bad investment

Maria finished her class, but wasn’t allowed to attend university because she was a woman. The Russian empire banned women from getting a university education. She and her sister registered themselves in a secret university named Flying university or Floating university in Warsaw .

She enrolled her in University of Paris known as the Sorbonne, where she studied Physics and mathematics. She earned a degree despite of her difficulties in Mathematics and Physics.

Marie Curie would earn her Doctorate/Doctor of Science degree from the Sorbonne in 1903. She did her thesis on radiation, which was recently discovered in Uranium by henry Becquerel. Curie was interested in Becquerel’s discovery and investigated further. She used an electrometer invented by her husband and his brother to measure radioactivity in many substances and minerals. She then realized through her experiments that, radiation was a property of the element in uranium, yet she observed the mineral pitchblende which primarily contains Uranium. She noticed it was far more radioactive than Uranium could explain. She was intrigued about the self questions and then he dropped of his own work and join his wife in her research. they grounded up tons of pitchblende and discovered an element that was 400times more radioactive than uranium, and then they named the element after her country of birth as polonium and then they discovered another element that gave off 900times more radiation than polonium and then came into the picture “RADIUM”– the unglamorous work of extracting and isolating the elements took place in a leaky and drafty shack near Pierre’s work as they didn’t have a dedicated lab space.

Their efforts got paid off. The Nobel prize in Physics in 1903 went to Marie, Piere and Becquerel for their research in radiation. This left a mark as Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize.

The origin of “monkey pox”-

The monkeypox is a rare and dangerous viral disease which is found in Europe and US, has raised red flags in several countries. It is rare, usually mild infection as it is contaminated from infected wild animals in Africa.

It was discovered in 1958 when two- pox like outbreaks occurred in colonies of monkey kept for research, thus leading in its name says US centres for disease controla and prevention (CDC).

It is caused by monkeypox virsuses, a type of orthopoxvirus.One of two types in humans the one is African type causes a less severe disease than central African type.This may be spread from handling bushmeat, animal bites or scratches, body fluids, contaminated objects or other than less contact with infected persons.

Symptoms-. It includes headache, muscle pains ,fever and fatigue.It may intially appar like flu.

It can resemble an chickenpox, measles and smallpox, but it is distinguished by presence of swollen glands.

They appear behind the ear, below the jaw, in neck or in groin before onset of rash.

Many cases in 2022 monkeypox an outbreak presented with genital and penianal lesions, fever , swollen lymph.

How To Prevent-

Smallpox vaccine has been reported to reduce risk of monkeypox among previously vaccinated person in Africa.

The (CDC) recommends that person who investigating monkeypox outbreak and involved in caring for infected persons should receive smallpox vaccination.

The (CDC) does not recommends pre- exposure vaccination for unexposed veterinarian, veterinary staff, or animal control officers.

The( CDC) recommends that healthcare providers done a full set of personal protective equipment.

The disease is rare and dangerous so the people must be aware of the infection and should be vaccinated timely to avoid the chance to get infected.