Current
Affairs Daily Updates: 03 March 2018
APPOINTMENTS
Justice Ajay Rastogi was sworn-in as the Chief
Justice of Tripura High Court.
Vinay Kumar has been appointed as the next
ambassador to Afghanistan.
Luminous
Power technology has signed Virat Kohli as the brand ambassador for its new
independent brand Amaze.
BANKING AND ECONOMY
SBI hikes lending rate for the first time since 2016, others follow
- SBI, country’s
largest lender increased the one year Marginal Cost of
Fund based Lending Rate (MCLR) by 20bps to 8.15% from
7.95%.
- Other
banks like ICICI, PNB etc. followed suit. ICICI Bank, the
largest private sector bank, raised one-year MCLR by 10bps from 8.20% to
8.30%.
- After
the MCLR system came into effect in April 2016, this is the first time
banks have increased the benchmark lending rate.
- This
will make home loan, personal loan etc costlier.
- Reason
for increase in lending rate- liquidity deficit in
banks led to increase in interest rate in fixed deposits recently.
This increased cost of deposit was bound to be passed on to the cost of
lending to maintain profit margin.
Finance ministry looks to consolidate overseas operations of PSU banks
- India's
government will consolidate 35 overseas branches of
state-run PSU banks and 69 more branches are under
review.
- The
government will also examine and shut down all non-viable offshore
operations of state banks to cut costs.
- The
government will also consolidate equity stakes in joint ventures having
multiple state-run bank partners.
- Indian
banking system has come under renewed scrutiny after a recent $2 billion
fraud in Punjab National Bank, the country's second biggest state lender.
- SBI
has highest number of oversea branches (52),
followed by Bank of Baroda and Bank of India.
- Country
wise UK has largest number of overseas branches of PSBs
followed by Hongkong and UAE.
Note-
Current Finance Secretary- Rajeev Kumar
Chief Economic Advisor to Govt of India- Arvind Subramanian
Chief Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Finance- Sanjeev Sanyal
Head of Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council- Bibek Debroy
Tata-Boeing joint venture establishes aerospace facility in Hyderabad
- Tata
and Boeing Aerospace limited has rolled out its state of the art
production facility at Adibhatla on the outskirts of Hyderabad in the
presence of Defence Minister Nirmala Sitaraman.
- The
facility is the joint venture between Boeing and Tata Advanced Systems and
Boeing’s first equity joint venture in India.
- It
will co-produce Boeing AH-64 Apache helicopter fuselages
and other aero-structures.
- The
Hyderabad production facility will eventually be the sole producer
of AH-64 fuselages globally.
EESL to install energy-efficient LEDs across all airports
- Energy
Efficiency Services Limited (EESL) signed a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) here today, with the Airports Authority of India (AAI)
for installing energy-efficient LED lights at airports.
- The
MoU is signed under the Building Energy Efficiency Programme (BEEP).
- EESL is
a, a joint venture of PSUs under the Ministry of Power
- For
this, EESL will make an investment of Rs 24.41 crore.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
India, Jordan sign 12 agreements
- India
and Jordan have inked 12 agreements in areas including Defence, Health and
Cultural Exchange Programme.
- MoU
for cooperation between Prasar Bharati and Jordan TV Cooperation
and Indian Institute of Mass Communication and Jordan Media Institute
(JMI).
- India
will provide five million Dollar assistance to Jordan in the form of
vaccines and medicines this year.
- The King
Abdullah II of Jordan arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday evening on
a three-day visit to India.
About Jordan:
Capital- Amman
Currency- Jordanian dollar
NATIONAL AFFAIRS
WCD Ministry approves Rs 2,900 cr projects under Nirbhaya fund for 8
major cities
- Women
and Child Development Ministry has approved projects
worth over 2,900 crore rupees under the Nirbhaya
fund for eight major cities to make them safer
for women.
- These
cities are Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad,
Ahmedabad and Lucknow.
- The
Nirbhaya Fund which aims at improving safety for women,
was set up in the aftermath of the gruesome gangrape and murder of a
paramedical student in Delhi in 2012.
- Some
programmes are- Police Didi in Mumbai; ABHAYAM vans
for quick response to women in distress; ‘Bharosa’ like one
stop crisis centre; ‘She Teams’ of women for surveillance.
- A
model forensic science laboratory in Chandigarh has been sanctioned.
Delhi govt to set up State Sanskrit Education Council
- The Delhi
government has decided to set up its State Sanskrit
Education Council to improve the state of formal education of the
language.
- Sanskrit
is one of the 22 scheduled languages mentioned in the 8th
schedule of our Constitution.
- It is
also one of the six languages to get classical language status
due to its antiquity and rich corpus of literature.
Cabinet clears Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill
- Union
Cabinet today approved Fugitive Economic Offenders Bill - 2018 to
deal with those escaping overseas to avoid getting caught.
- Aim-
to deter economic offenders from evading the process of Indian law by
remaining outside the jurisdiction of Indian Courts.
- It
will allow the government to confiscate all the assets in India, including
Benami properties, after the economic offenders are declared fugitives.
- Economic
offences worth 100 crore rupees or more will come under
the purview of the Bill.
- A National
Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) will be constituted which
will act as an independent regulator for auditing profession.
- The
jurisdiction of NFRA will be expanded to listed companies and large
unlisted companies.
Telangana launched an integrated app for all government services
- Telangana
launched m-Governance mobile application called ‘T App Folio’.
- It
will citizens with one point access to government services like MeeSeva
services, RTA services, fee payments and bill
payment services etc.
- Telangana
has become the second state government in India to set up
a mobile service delivery gateway in place for the provision of government
to citizen (G2C) services.
- It is
being launched in both Telugu and English.
- Telangana
state has been ranked number 1 in digital transactions based
on the number of e-transactions per 1,000 population.
Delhi govt to set up State Sanskrit Education Council
- The Delhi
government has decided to set up its State Sanskrit
Education Council to improve the state of formal education of the
language.
- Sanskrit
is one of the 22 scheduled languages mentioned in the 8th
schedule of our Constitution.
- It is
also one of the six languages to get classical language status
due to its antiquity and rich corpus of literature.
Avaada power to install 500 MW solar capacity in Andhra Pradesh
- Avaada
power limited will invest Rs 3,500 crore to establish 500 MW solar
projects in Andhra Pradesh
- It
will provide clean energy to 2.4 million houses and generate 1200 job
opportunities.
- Andhra
Pradesh has a target of producing 18 GW renewable energy capacity by 2022.
- India
too has an ambitious target of producing 175
GW of renewable energy by 2022 and 100 MW of which will come from
solar energy.
First mega food park in Maharashtra inaugurated at Satara
- Inaugurated
by- Harsimrat Kaur Badal
- This
is the 12th mega park of the country.
- It
will help the government to achieve its target of doubling farmers’ income
by 2022.
- Scheme
for food processing- Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojna
Lakshadweep joins UDAY scheme
- The
Union Territory of Lakshwadeep has joined the
Ujwal Discom Assurance Yojana (UDAY).
- With
this the UT derive an overall net benefit of Rs 8 crore due
to access to cheaper fund, reduction in AT&C loss (Aggregate
Technical and Commercial loss), improving energy efficiency etc.
SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Moon to get its first mobile phone network
- The
moon will get its first mobile network (a 4G network) next year.
- Vodafone
Germany, Nokia and Carmaker Audi are working jointly to
make this a reality. It will the first privately funded moon mission.
- The
companies are working with Berlin-based company PTScientists on the
project, with a launch scheduled in 2019 from Cape Canaveral on a SpaceX
Falcon 9 rocket.
- It
will enable high-definition streaming from the lunar landscape back to
earth.
SPORTS AFFAIRS
Pankaj Advani guides India to semi-finals of IBSF World Team Snooker
- Multiple
World billiards and snooker Champion Pankaj Advani led
Indian team to the semi-final stage at the IBSF World Cup Team Snooker
being held in Doha.
IOC restores Russia's Olympic membership
- International
Olympic Committee (IOC) has restored Russia's Olympic membership.
- Russia
was banned from recent winter Olympics in South Korea due to systematic
state sponsored doping.
- A
total of 168 Russians competed as part of a neutral OAR (Olympic
Athletes from Russia) team at the Winter Olympics and was the
third largest to win 17 medals, including two golds.
- The
IOC planned to reinstate Russia after the Games - so long as there were no
more failed tests.
