Special Window for funding of stalled Housing projects
Relevance: Mains: G.S paper III: Indian Economy
- The Union Cabinet approved the establishment of a ‘Special Window’ to provide priority debt financing for the completion of stalled housing projects that are in the Affordable and Middle-Income Housing sector.
The Special Window will provide last-mile funding to projects that meet the following criteria:
- Net-worth positive, The affordable and middle-income housing project, On-going projects registered with
RERA, Reference by the existing lender - Will include stressed projects classified as NPA and those in NCLT
- Fund(s) created under the Special Window will be set up as priority debt funds. A detailed Investment Policy will be laid down to guide the selection of projects to be financed through a detailed due-diligence process that will include legal due-diligence, title due diligence, micro-market analysis, financial analysis, etc.
- The final decision will be taken by the Investment Committee of each Fund comprising of experienced professionals and industry experts. The Investment Committee will approve individual deals independently as per Investment Policy ensuring alignment with investment objectives of the Fund.
News in detail
- The funds will be set up as Category-II Alternate Investment (AIFs) Fund registered with SEBI. These funds would be entrusted to professional Investment Managers. For the first AIF under the Special Window, it is proposed that SBICAP Ventures Limited shall be engaged to be the Investment Manager.
- For the purposes of funds to be set up, the government shall act as the Sponsor and the total funds committed by the Government would be up to INR 10,000 crore.
- The Special Window would provide funds to stalled housing projects enabling them to complete unfinished projects and consequently ensure delivery of homes to a large number of home-buyers.
- This will, in due course, help relieve the financial stress faced by a large number of middle-class homebuyers who have invested their hard-earned money. This will also restore trust between buyers and developers and boost the sentiments of the housing sector as a whole and release a large number of funds stuck in these projects for productive use in the economy.
Uttam rake
Relevance: Mains: G.S paper III: Indian economy
- Indian Railways’ Western Railway Zone has introduced state of the art ‘Uttam Rake’ for the local trains in Mumbai.
- The newly introduced rake has improved interiors and advanced features to make traveling in local a better experience for the Mumbaikars.
- The Uttam rake is equipped with better seats, CCTV cameras, red emergency buttons, anti-dent partitions, modular luggage racks.
Features of the Uttam Rake
- Provision of CCTV Surveillance System in all coaches
- Anti-dent partitions in coaches to prevent thefts
- Modular Luggage rack
- High backrest seats in First Class coaches
- Provision of Fibre Reinforced Plastic (FRP) seats in Second Class coaches with wooden finishing for better aesthetics
- Improved Dual Lock Stopper with dual slot handles windows in all coaches
- Wider and improved grab handles for better grip
- Latest Brushless DC (BLDC) fans in all coaches which consumes 30% less energy than conventional fans
- Provision of modular type diffused LED lights
- Electrically operated Passenger Alarm System in place of traditional emergency chains
- Smooth finished corrugated FRP ceiling and Wooden finished Roof Ventilation Duct Area to enhance the aesthetic appeal of coach interior
- Provision of camouflaged aluminium moulded strips on floor to discourage theft
- Stainless steel protective plate near all passenger seats to avoid colour fading due to footwear friction.
- Red emergency buttons.
Space taxis
Relevance: Mains: G.S paper III: Defence and security
Why in news?
- Boeing mentioned that an unmanned safety test flight of its CST-100 Starliner crew capsule being developed to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS) had been successful.
News Summary
- The Boeing CST-100 Starliner (Crew Space Transportation) crew capsule is a spacecraft under construction by Boeing as its participation in NASA’s Commercial Crew Programme (CCP).
- Its primary purpose is to transport crew to the International Space Station (ISS) and to private space stations such as the proposed Bigelow Aerospace Commercial Space Station. The Starliner can accommodate seven crew members or a mix of crew and cargo to low-Earth orbit.
- NASA expects the first mission to carry humans using these capsules to take off by 2020.
- Boeing is one of two companies that CCP has agreements with to develop new private spaceships meant to ferry astronauts to space and back; the other is Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corporation or SpaceX.
- NASA wants to reduce dependence on Russia’s fleet of Soyuz space shuttles, which have been, since the retirement of the US Space Shuttle Program (SSP) in 2011, the only spacecraft that can ferry astronauts (and cosmonauts) to the ISS and back.
- All Soyuz spacecraft are launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.