# Small savings rate

• The centre announced on Friday an increase in interest rates on several small savings schemes, such as national savings certificate, Kisan vikas patra, Sukanya samriddhi accounts and most post office deposits scheme by upto 70 basis points.
• It left the returns on public provident fund unchanged at 7.1%.
• During the June quarter for which rates were notified by the finance ministry, NSC will see the steepest increase of 70 basis points.
• The return is lower than the 8.15% proposed by the employees provident for its subscribers for 2022-23.

# Gujarat high court

• The Gujarat high court on Friday quashed a seven year old order of the chief information commissioner, directing Gujarat university to provide information sought by Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on PM Narendra Modi’s post graduate degree under the RTI act.
• The court felt that disclosure of PM Modi’s Post graduate degrees could not be considered a matter of public interest.
• Justice Vaishnav noted that Gujarat university has already posted PM’s MA degree on its website.

# Gold

• With a 1031 point rise in the sensex on Friday, Dalal street closed financial year 2022-23 on a high.
• Meanwhile, gold gave the highest return of 15%.

# Current account deficit

• India’s current account deficit has declined to $18.2 billion, which is 2.2% of the GDP in the third quarter of 2022-23.
• It was $30.9 billion( 3.9% of the GDP ) in the previous quarter and $22.2 billion in the year ago period.

# Foreign exchange reserves

• The country’s foreign exchange reserves rose for a second straight week and stood at $579 billion.
• That is an increase of $6 billion from the last week.