In 2020, the Australian Navy joined the Malabar Exercise, making it a quadrilateral naval exercise.

Malabar Exercise

• It is a multilateral war-gaming naval exercise that was started in 1992. It began as a bilateral exercise between the navies of India and the United States.
•  It expanded in 2007 to include Japan and Australia, with Japan becoming a permanent partner in 2015. Australia rejoined the exercise in 2020, marking the Quad’s joint participation in military drills.
• From 2002 onward, the exercise has been conducted every year.
  • Japan and Australia first participated in 2007, and since 2014, India, the US and Japan have participated in the exercise every year.
• In 2020 Australia joined the Malabar Exercise on India’s request in order to contain China in the Indo-Pacific region.
  • For the first time in over a decade, Malabar 2020 saw the participation of all four Quad members.
• It is aimed to support free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific and remain committed to a rules based international order.

  All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey(NAFIS) for 2021-22

• NAFIS was launched in 2016-17 as a national level survey that offers comprehensive overview of rural population in terms of their status of livelihoods and level of financial inclusion (including loans, insurance, pension etc.).
• Second NAFIS provides key insight into economic and financial indicators of rural development since 2016-17.

• It offers primary data based on a survey of 1 lakh rural households, covering various economic and financial indicators in the post-COVID period. 

• The All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey for 2021-22 found that 57% of rural households in the country — including households in semi-urban centres with a population of less than 50,000 — were “agricultural”. This was significantly higher than the 48% reported in the previous survey of 2016-17.
• It defined an “agricultural household” as one that (i) reported a total value of produce from farming exceeding Rs 6,500 (be it cultivation of field and horticulture crops, livestock and poultry rearing, or aquaculture, sericulture and apiculture); and (ii) had at least one member who was self-employed in such activities during the reference year (July 2021 to June 2022). 
  • In the 2016-17 survey, the threshold cut-off value of produce was Rs 5,000.
• The share of rural households identified as agricultural, based on the above definitions, has gone up for nearly all states between 2016-17 and 2021-22.
• The all-India average monthly income of agricultural households, at Rs 13,661 in 2021-22, was more than the Rs 11,438 for non-agricultural rural households.
• Within agricultural households, the contribution of cultivation and animal husbandry to total income was over 45% in 2021-22, up from 43.1% in 2016-17. 
• The proportion of households in rural India reliant on agriculture as a livelihood source has registered a sharp increase between 2016-17 and 2021-22.
•  The average monthly income of households saw a substantial rise of 57.6% over a five-year period, increasing from Rs. 8,059 in 2016-17 to Rs. 12,698 in 2021-22.
• The average monthly expenditure of rural households rose significantly from Rs. 6,646 in 2016-17 to Rs. 11,262 in 2021-22. 
•  The annual average financial savings of households increased to Rs. 13,209 in 2021-22 from Rs. 9,104 in 2016-17. 
• The percentage of households with at least one member covered by any form of insurance increased significantly from 25.5% in 2016-17 to 80.3% in 2021-22. 
• The percentage of respondents demonstrating good financial literacy increased by 17 percentage points, rising from 33.9% in 2016-17 to 51.3% in 2021-22.

Additional information

• Thermite was used in both world wars. During World War I, German zeppelins dropped thermite-laden bombs which were considered an innovation at the time. By World War II, thermite-laden high incendiary explosives became a part and parcel of both the Allies and Axis forces’ aerial bombing campaigns.

• The Member-States of the Eurasian Economic Union are the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation.

Eurasian Economic Union

• • The Eurasian Economic Union is an international organization for regional economic integration. 
  • It has international legal personality and is established by the Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union.
    • The Treaty on the Eurasian Economic Union was signed on 29 May 2014 by the leaders of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia, and came into force on 1 January 2015.
    • Armenia was admitted to the Union the day after it came into force. 
    • Kyrgyzstan also acceded to the Eurasian Economic Union in August 2015, motivated by its close economic ties to Kazakhstan and by the labour mobility provided by the EEU.
  • The EAEU provides for free movement of goods, services, capital and labor, pursues coordinated, harmonized and single policy in the sectors determined by the Treaty and international agreements within the Union.
  • The Member-States of the Eurasian Economic Union are the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian Federation.
  • The Union is being created to comprehensively upgrade, raise the competitiveness of and cooperation between the national economies, and to promote stable development in order to raise the living standards of the nations of the Member-States.
• Structure:

• • The Supreme Eurasian Economic Council is the highest body of the EAEU, which consists of the heads of the Union’s member states. 
  • The Eurasian Economic Commission,based in Moscow, is the permanent supranational regulatory body of the union. The main purpose of the Commission is to ensure the functioning and development of the EAEU and developing proposals for the further development of integration.
  • The Court of the EAEU,based in Minsk,serves as the judicial body.
• Unlike the European Commission, the Eurasian Economic Commission’s power is limited.
• Member states disagreeing with its judgements can appeal to other bodies, and the Commission has no power to bring a member state before the Court in a case of non-compliance.
• Disputes are often resolved bilaterally rather than via EEU institutions.
• Unlike the European Union (EU), the EAEU does not share a common currency.

International Energy Agency (IEA)

• • It is an autonomous inter-governmental organisation within the OECD framework.
  • It works with governments and industry to shape a secure and sustainable energy future for all.
  • It was founded in 1974 to ensure the security of oil supplies. 
  • It was created in response to the 1973-1974 oil crisis when an oil embargo by major producers pushed prices to historic levels and exposed the vulnerability of industrialised countries to dependency on oil imports. 
  • It consists of 31 member countries and 13 association countries.
  • A candidate country to the IEA must be a member country of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
• Criteria for membership

• • Crude oil and/or product reserves are equivalent to 90 days of the previous year’s net imports, to which the government has immediate access (even if it does not own them directly) and could be used to address disruptions to global oil supply.
  • A demand restraint programme to reduce national oil consumption by up to 10%.
  • Legislation and organisation to operate the Coordinated Emergency Response Measures (CERM) on a national basis.
  • Legislation and measures to ensure that all oil companies under its jurisdiction report information upon request.
  • Measures are in place to ensure the capability of contributing its share of an IEA collective action.
• Reports published by IEA: World Energy Outlook, World Energy Balances, Energy Technology Perspectives, World Energy Statistics and Net Zero by 2050.