VANIK's Monthly Digest
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MONTHLY DIGEST- CURRENT AFFAIRS CAPSULE-FEBRUARY 2020 .12.2018 VANIK’S MONTHLY.2018 DIGEST - CURRENT AFFAIRS CAPSULE-FEBRUARY 2020 .11.2018SL NO TOPICS PAGE NO 1 IMPORTANT DAYS 2 2 ECONOMY 3 RBI news Other banks Financial news Merger and acquisition Loan and allocation Ratting and survey PSU, e-commerce and corporate 3 COMMITTEE AND ITS HEAD 8 4 STATE NEWS 9 5 NATIONAL NEWS 13 6 INTERNATIONAL NEWS 17 7 NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL 18 SUMMIT AND CONFERENCE 8 RANKING 20 9 BILATERAL 22 10 AWARDS AND HONOURS 23 11 PERSON IN NEWS 25 12 SPORTS 27 13 DEFENCE 30 14 SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 31 15 BOOKS AND AUTHORS 32 16 OBITUARIES 33 MONTHLY DIGEST- CURRENT AFFAIRS CAPSULE-FEBRUARY 2020 IMPORTANT DAYS February 2 World Wetlands.12.2018 Day Theme: “Wetlands and Biodiversity”. The day marks the date of the adoption of the Convention on .2018 Wetlands at Ramsar Convention, Iran on February 2,1971. February 4 World Cancer Day organized by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), Geneva, Switzerland The theme of WCD from 2019-21 is “I am and I will”. February 6 International.11.2018 Day of Theme: “Unleashing Youth Power: One decade of accelerating Zero Tolerance to actions for zero female genital mutilation”. Female Genital The themes focus to end FGM by 2030. Mutilation (FGM) A special campaign titled ‘A Piece of Me’ was organized by the UNFPA (United Nations Fund for Population Activities) February 10 World Pulses Day National Agricultural Cooperative Federation of India Ltd. (NAFED) hosts the UN World Pulses Day celebrations in New Delhi February 10 National Deworming Children and adolescents in the age group of 1-19 years will be provided Day(NDD) single dose of a safe medicine Albendazole in all States and Union Territories (UT). February 11 Safer Internet Day Theme: “Together for better Internet”. Google launches internet safety campaign named #PehleSafety to create awareness around internet safety. February 11 World Unani Day The day marks the birthday of great Unani scholar and social reformer “Hakim Ajmal Khan”. 4th Unani day function organized by Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy) February 11 International Day of Theme: “Investment in Women and Girls in Science for Inclusive Green Women and Girls in Growth”. Science February 12 National Productivity National Productivity Council (NPC) comes under the Ministry of day Commerce & Industry. February 12 Darwin Day father of evolutionary biology-Charles Darwin February 13 National Women’s day Birth anniversary of Sarojini Naidu (also named Nightingale of India) observes as National Women’s day. International Women’s day: 8th March. February 13 World Radio Day Theme: “Radio and Diversity” (WRD) February 19 Soil Health Card Day Soil health card scheme completes 5 years on 19 February 2020,as it was launched by PM Modi on 19.02.2015 at Suratgarh, Rajasthan. February 20 World Day of Social Justice February 21 International Mother Theme: “Languages without Border” Language Day (IMLD) The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) celebrated “Matribhasha Diwas” on february 21 with them “Celebrating our Multilingual Heritage”. February 24 Central Excise Day February 27 India’s First Protein Theme: “Protein Mein Kya Hai” Day February 28 National Science Day The theme of the year 2020 is “Women in Science.” On this day, Sir CV Raman had announced the discovery of the Raman Effect for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1930. February 29 World Rare Disease Every Year, last date of February is observed as World Rare Disease Day. Day Theme: Reframe Rare for Rare Disease Day 2 MONTHLY DIGEST- CURRENT AFFAIRS CAPSULE-FEBRUARY 2020 ECONOMY NEWS RBI Overview of 6th Bi-monthly.12.2018 monetary policy 2020 Repo Rate: 5.15% Reverse Repo Rate: 4.90%.2018 Marginal standing facility (MSF) Rate: 5.40% Bank Rate: 5.40% Cash reserve Ratio (CRR): 4% Statutory Liquidity Ratio.11.2018 (SLR): 18.25% GDP for 2020-21: 6 % (from 5 %) Bank deposit insurance hiked to Rs 5 lakh per depositor by Budget 2020 Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech 2020 has proposed to hike the bank deposit insurance in scheduled commercial banks to Rs 5 lakh per depositor from the current Rs 1 lakh. Previously as per the RBI guidelines, deposits with all commercial banks and cooperative banks are insured under the Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation (DICGC). Only Primary Cooperative Societies are not covered under DICGC. As the insurance cover stands increased, the banks will pay a premium of 12 paise against 10 paise per Rs 100 deposited. RBI grants 5-year CRR relief to banks for lending to auto, housing, MSMEs The Reserve Bank of India asked banks to avail the cash reserve ratio (CRR) exemption on home, auto and MSME loans for a period of 5 years. At present, the bank is required to park Rs 4 with the RBI for every Rs 100 earned by them under the regulatory cash reserve ratio requirements. This implies if a bank lends Rs 25 out of the Rs 100 it earns; it can retain Re 1 with itself and pay only Rs 3 to RBI. Under this CRR leeway, banks can avail themselves of CRR exemption for five years for incremental credit extended to automobiles, residential housing, micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) between 31 Jan to 31 July 2020. Banks were asked to claim the first such deduction from the NDTL of February 14, 2020, for the amount equivalent to the incremental credit extended to the sectors indicated above over the outstanding level of credit as at the end of the fortnight ended January 31, 2020. To ensure cheaper retail loans to borrowers, it relaxed regulatory requirements of lenders and promised to extend long term (1-3 years) funds of up to Rs 1 lakh crore to them at a concessional rate of 5.15%. RBI proposes draft rules to set up alternative retail payments system The Reserve bank of India proposed a draft framework for setting up a new umbrella entity (NUE) focussed on retail payments system, along the lines of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The new entity will be a company incorporated in India under the Companies Act, 2013, with a minimum paid-up capital of ₹500 crore. The entity eligible to apply as promoter or promoter group for the NUE shall be ‘owned and controlled by residents’ with three years’ experience in the payments ecosystem as Payment System Operator (PSO)/Payment Service Provider (PSP)/Technology Service Provider (TSP). Any entity holding more than 25% of the paid-up capital of the NUE shall be deemed to be a promoter. No single promoter or promoter group shall have more than 40% investment in the capital of the NUE. The promoters shall upfront demonstrate capital contribution of not less than 10% i.e. ₹50 crore at the time of making an application for setting up of the NUE. A minimum net-worth of ₹300 crore shall be maintained at all times. RBI directs banks to link new floating rate loans to medium enterprises with external benchmark The Reserve Bank of India has ordered banks to link all their new floating rate loans to medium enterprises with an external benchmark. The apex bank’s circular in this regard stated that the direction will be effective from April 1, 2020. The external benchmarks include RBI repo rate, Treasury bill yields and other market interest rate published by the Financial Benchmark India Private Ltd (FBIL). A floating-rate loan refers to a loan with a floating interest rate. A floating interest rate is known as an adjustable or variable rate. It refers to any debt instrument such as loan, mortgage, credit or bond that does not have a fixed rate of interest. 3 MONTHLY DIGEST- CURRENT AFFAIRS CAPSULE-FEBRUARY 2020 New one rupee currency notes coming soon The Union Ministry of Finance has notified ‘Printing of One Rupee Currency Notes Rules, 2020’ It shall be rectangular.12.2018 9.7 x 6.3 cms, with its paper made of 100% (cotton) rag content. Obverse side of one rupee note: It will contain the.2018 words “भभभभ भभभभभ‟ above the words “Government of India”. It will feature bilingual signature of Shri Atanu Chakraborty, Secretary, Ministry of Finance. It has replica of New.11.2018 Rupee One coin with ‘₹’ symbol of 2020 issued with ‘भभभभभभभ भभभभ‟ and capital Inset letter ‘L’ in numbering panel. Reverse side of one rupee note: One rupee note contains ‘भभभभ भभभभभ’ above the words “Government of India” with the year 2020 on the representation of the One Rupee coin with ‘₹‘ symbol having design of grains depicting the agricultural dominance of the country. Surrounding design consist of picture of ‘Sagar Samrat’ the oil exploration platform. Reserve Bank set to conduct Financial Literacy Week (FLW) 2020 from February 10–14 Theme- “Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)” EPFO is considering a cut of 15 basis points in the interest rate on PF deposits in FY20 to 8.5% form 8.65% in FY19. According to a GST Council notification 28% GST rate will be applicable to state-run and authorised lotteries from March 1. NPCI(National Payment Corporation of India) launches ‘UPI Chalega’ campaign for payment mode to gain currency Other banks BoM, SBI only PSBs rated 'good' in digital transactions in Dec: As per MeitY Bank of Maharashtra and State Bank of India are the only two state-run banks that showed 'good' performance in terms of digital transactions in December with a score of 77 and 68 respectively. The score for an individual bank is given by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on various parameters.