Additional Information 

• Copper is a malleable and ductile metallic element that is an excellent conductor of heat and electricity as well as being corrosion resistant and antimicrobial.
•  Copper occurs naturally in the Earth’s crust in a variety of forms. It can be found in sulfide deposits (as chalcopyrite, bornite, chalcocite, covellite), in carbonate deposits (as azurite and malachite), in silicate deposits (as chrysycolla and dioptase) and as pure “native” copper. 
• Most commercial copper ore deposits contain an average grade of 0.8% copper, while copper ore in India has an average copper content of around 1%.
• There are two methods of mining copper minerals: open pit and underground. 
• Open- pit mining accounts for 80% of all copper mining operations in the world
• Copper Deposits in India: Mainly located in Singhbhum (Jharkhand), Balaghat (Madhya Pradesh), and Jhunjhunu and Alwar (Rajasthan) districts.
  • Minor deposits are found in Agnigundala (Andhra Pradesh), Chitradurga and Hasan (Karnataka), and South Arcot (Tamil Nadu) districts.

• Hindustan Copper Limited (HCL): Established in 1967 under the Companies Act, It is a Miniratna Category-I enterprise operating under the Ministry of Mines, Government of India.
  • It was formed to consolidate all copper exploration and exploitation projects from the National Mineral Development Corporation Ltd.
  • HCL is India’s only vertically integrated copper producing company.

• Qualified Institutional Investors (QIIs)
• Anchor Investors
• Retail Investors
• High Net-worth Individuals (HNIs)/Non-institutional Investors (NII)

Additional Information

• An Initial Public Offering, or IPO, marks a company’s transition from a privately held entity to a publicly traded one. When a company files for an IPO, it is all set to make a share market debut. Its shares will be made available to the general public for the first time. Companies do so to raise capital by selling their new shares to the general public.
• Further Public Offer (FPO) / Follow-on Public Offer (FPO): When a listed company wants additional capital, it makes either a fresh issue of securities or an offer for sale of existing securities to the public it is called a Follow-on Public Offer (FPO).

• Commercial banks, public financial institutions, mutual fund houses, and Foreign Portfolio Investors registered with SEBI fall into this category. Underwriters try to sell large chunks of IPO shares to them at a lucrative price before the start of the IPO. 
• SEBI mandates that institutional investors sign a lock–up contract for at least 90 days to ensure minimal volatility during the IPO proces
• . The regulatory body prohibits companies from allocating more than 50% of shares to QIIs.

Anchor Investors

• Anchor investors are institutional investors who commit to buying a significant portion of an IPO before it is opened to the public. Their involvement provides a level of stability and confidence in the offering, often encouraging other investors to participate. 
• Anchor investors typically receive a fixed allocation of shares at a predetermined price.
• Any QII which makes an application of over ₹10 crore, is an anchor investor. Up to 60% of the shares meant for qualified institutional investors can be sold to anchor investors.

Retail Investors

• Retail investors are individual investors who participate in IPOs with smaller investments compared to institutional investors. 
• Retail investors typically have access to a reserved portion of shares, allowing them to participate alongside larger investors. The minimum allocation under the retail quota is 35%. 
• SEBI has decreed that if the issue is oversubscribed, subject to availability, all retail investors be allotted at least one lot of shares. If the one-lot-to-each-investor is not possible, a lottery system is used to allocate IPO shares to the public.

High Net-worth Individuals (HNIs)/Non-institutional Investors (NII)

• Individuals looking to invest more than ₹2 lakh are categorized as HNIs. Similarly, institutions that want to subscribe for more than ₹2 lakh are called non-institutional investors. 
• The difference between a QII and an NII is that the latter does not have to register with SEBI. The allotment of shares to HNIs/NIIs is on a proportionate basis, i.e., if one applies for 10,000 shares and the issue is oversubscribed 10 times, they would be allotted 1,000 shares (10,000/10). This means they are always allotted shares, regardless of whether the issue is oversubscribed or not.
•  Typically, 1-2% of shares are earmarked for the employees as a way of awarding them for the risk they took in associating with a new company.

• Qatar,Saudi Arabia,Jordan,Iraq  are members of the Arab League.

Additional Information

• Arab League, also called League of Arab States (LAS), is an intergovernmental pan-Arab organisation of all Arab states in the Middle East and North Africa.
• The Arab League was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945, initially with seven members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and North Yemen.

Objective:

• It aims to strengthen and coordinate the political, cultural, economic, and social programs of its members and to mediate disputes among them or between them and third parties.
  • The signing on 13th April 1950, of an agreement on joint defense and economic cooperation also committed the signatories to coordination of military defense measures.
• Each member state has one vote in the Council of the Arab League, and decisions are binding only for those states that have voted for them.

Currently, the League has 22 members:

• Algeria
• Bahrain
• Comoros
• Djibouti
• Egypt
• Iraq
• Jordan
• Kuwait
• Lebanon
• Libya
• Mauritania
• Morocco
• Oman
• Palestine
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Somalia
• Sudan
• Syria
• Tunisia
• United Arab Emirates
• Yemen

Additional Information

• Sakthan Thampuran became heir apparent in 1769 as an 18-year-old. He advised his king to maintain friendly relations with both the Dutch and the English, who were vying for a larger share of trade in the region.
• Sakthan is said to have orchestrated Mysore’s attempt to invade the Travancore kingdom, which had established relations with the English East India Company. 
  • This would result in the Powney treaty which freed the Cochin kingdom from its allegiance to Mysore, and helped formalise its relations with the British.
• He encouraged merchants of all religions and British officials to relocate to the city.
•  He also overhauled and firmed up the kingdom’s finances, personally overseeing revenue management.
• Sakthan Thampuran started the Thrissur Pooram in 1797 as an alternative to the Arattupuzha Pooram, then the largest temple festival in the state. 

Additional Information

• The collegium system of appointment (and transfer) of judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts was laid down by a nine-judge Bench of the Supreme Court in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association vs Union of India (1993), commonly known as the Second Judges Case.
• The ruling made the recommendations of the SC collegium binding on the Centre, and gave the power to appoint and transfer judges of the higher judiciary to the judiciary.
•  Under the collegium system, judges choose judges — and while the government can delay their appointments, it cannot reject the collegium’s choice.
• The Collegium for HC appointments includes the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and the two senior most judges of the Supreme Court.
  • This collegium would be required to consult the “Chief Justice and senior judges” of the HC concerned, the “seniormost” SC judge from that HC, as well as any SC judges who were “knowledgeable” about that HC.
• Following the opinion given by the SC in the Third Judges Case, the central government and the SC entered into a Memorandum of Procedure (MOP) in 1998, which detailed the process, from the beginning, for the appointment of HC judges.
• As a part of this process, the Chief Justice of the HC must consult two other senior most judges at the HC — together forming the High Court collegium — and send their recommendations, with reasons, to the Chief Minister, the Governor, and the CJI.
• The Governor, based on the advice of the Chief Minister, will send the proposal to the Minister of Law and Justice at the Centre, who will conduct a background check and send the entire material to the CJI, who will consider it with the rest of the SC collegium.
• The court also spelled out the limited grounds on which a recommendation could be challenged→
  • First, if there was lack of “effective consultation” with any of these individuals or institutions. 
  • Second, if the candidate in question was not “eligible” to be a judge — these qualifications are laid down in Articles 217 (High Court) and 124 (Supreme Court) of the Constitution.