Current Affairs Questions

Explanation :

• Iran decided to change its currency from existing ‘Rial’ to ‘Toman’.
• The Iranian lawmakers voted on May 4, 2020 to approve an amendment to Iran’s Monetary and Banking Act of Iran to make the change.
• The amendment bill will cut four zeros from Iran’s currency. Toman, the new currency is equal to 10,000 rials.
• The new currency has been introduced amid the sharp fall in the value of Iranian currency as a result of crippling sanctions imposed by the United States.

Iran

• Capital: Tehran
• Also called Persia, and officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, it is a country in Western Asia.
• It is bordered to the northwest by Armenia and Azerbaijan,to the north by the Caspian Sea, to the northeast by Turkmenistan, to the east by Afghanistan and Pakistan, to the south by the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and to the west by Turkey and Iraq.

Its central location in Eurasia and Western Asia, and its proximity to the Strait of Hormuz, give it geostrategic importance.

Explanation :

• AGR is the usage and licensing fee that telecom operators are charged by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
• Telecom operators are required to pay license fee and spectrum charges in the form of ‘revenue share’ to the Centre. The revenue amount used to calculate this revenue share is termed as the AGR.
• According to the DoT, the calculations should incorporate all revenues earned by a telecom company – including from non-telecom sources such as deposit interests and sale of assets. The companies, however, have been of the view that AGR should comprise the revenues generated from telecom services only and non-telecom revenues should be kept out of it.
• Currently, telecom operators pay 8% of the AGR as license fee, while spectrum usage charges (SUC) vary between 3-5% of AGR.