Daily Current Affairs 10th & 11th May, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 10 & 11 May 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

India launches Mission Sagar to assist island nations in Eastern Indian Ocean
India launched Mission Sagar as part of the government’s outreach initiative towards five Island nations in the Indian Ocean amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

• Indian Naval Ship Kesari has departed for Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Madagascar and Comoros, to provide Food Items, COVID related Medicines including HCQ Tablets and Special Ayurvedic Medicines with Medical Assistance Teams embarked

TN forms panel under ex-RBI Guv Rangarajan to improve fiscal position
The Tamil Nadu government set up a high-level committee headed by former Reserve Bank of India governor C Rangarajan to examine fiscal challenges facing the state owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and suggest the way forward to improve its fiscal position.

• The committee, which will also consist of Finance Secretary S Krishnan as coordinator, will submit its report to the government within three months.
• The committee, with 21 members, would assess the overall immediate and medium term impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on different sectors of the state’s economy including the impact of lockdown, additional costs and implications due to social distancing and their precautionary measures.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

WHO, UN’s postal agency release commemorative stamp on 40th anniversary of smallpox eradication
The WHO and the UN’s postal agency have released a commemorative postage stamp on the 40th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox, with the head of the global health body expressing gratitude to a top Indian-origin UN official.

• In May 1980, the 33rd World Health Assembly issued its official declaration that “the world and all its peoples have won freedom from smallpox.”
• It was ended on the back of a 10-year WHO-spearheaded global effort that involved thousands of health workers around the world to administer half a billion vaccinations to stamp out smallpox

BANKING & FINANCE

SBI launches special FD scheme “SBI Wecare Deposit” for senior citizens
The State Bank of India (SBI) introduced a new scheme for senior citizens called “SBI Wecare Deposit” for senior citizens in its retail term deposit segment. The scheme aims at safeguarding the interest of senior citizens in fixed deposits amid falling rate of return.

• Under this scheme, those aged over 60 years will get an additional 30 basis points (0.30 percent) premium on term deposits (also known as fixed deposits) with tenure of 5 years and above.
• For retail term deposits (FDs) of ‘below 5 years’ senior citizens will continue to earn 50 bps (0.50 percent) higher than the rate applicable to the general public.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Central Board of Direct Taxes amends Rule 44G of Income-tax Rules 1962
Central Board of Direct Taxes has amended Rule 44G of Income-tax Rules, 1962 for making an application to invoke the mutual agreement procedure in Form no. 34F.

• These rules will be called Income-tax (8th Amendment) Rules, 2020. 
• The competent authority in India shall endeavour to arrive at a mutually agreeable resolution of the tax disputes

Government hikes market borrowing limit to Rs 12 lakh crore for FY21
The government increased its market borrowing estimate by staggering Rs 4.2 lakh crore to Rs 12 lakh crore for the current fiscal to deal with the expected shortfall in revenue due to the impact of COVID-19 crisis on the economy.

• The government resorts to market borrowing to make up for the mismatch between its revenue and expenditure.
• The government has also increased the weekly borrowing target to Rs 30,000 crore from Rs 21,000 crore fixed on March 31

Rs 18,253 crore transferred to farmers under PM-KISAN scheme during lockdown
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that ₹18,253 crore has been disbursed to 9.13 crore farmers under the PM-KISAN scheme during the ongoing nationwide lockdown.

• Under the PM-KISAN (Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi) scheme, each farmer gets ₹6,000 in a year in three equal instalments, directly in bank account.

Sitharaman launches two exchanges to take on offshore currency market
India is taking its first baby steps to tackle a growing offshore market for its currency. Two exchanges, India International Exchange (IFSC) and NSE IFSC began trading foreign-exchange settled rupee derivatives, part of a push to bring the market back home.

• The launch comes amid the world’s most expansive coronavirus lockdown, which has crippled businesses and hurt trading volumes in the country’s financial markets. The timing may make it harder for the contracts to gain traction even as volumes in rupee trading overseas continue to grow.

Indian economy may contract 0.4% in FY21, says Nomura and Goldman Sachs
Two foreign brokerages predicted a contraction of 0.4 per cent of India’s GDP in the current financial year due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Japanese brokerage Nomura warned of a likely downgrade of the sovereign by global ratings agencies while American brokerage Goldman Sachs (GS) said RBI will cut rates by another 1 percentage point to arrest the economic slide.
• Analysts at domestic rating agency IcraNSE 1.29 % have warned of a contraction in the GDP in FY21. The agency has estimated a minus two per cent growth for the count. ry
• Earlier in the day, global rating agency Moody’s cut growth estimate to zero.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

IIT Delhi startup launches ‘Reusable Antimicrobial Mask’
With increasing demand for face masks to contain transmission of coronavirus, an IIT-Delhi startup named ‘Nanosafe Solutions’ has launched an antimicrobial and washable face mask that can be reused up to 50 launderings.

• The mask has been designed to maximize durability and dimensional stability, so that the mask can be reused 50 times. Effective reusability is an important factor as single-use masks will cause huge disposal issues”.

APPOINTMENTS

Narinder Batra’s term as FIH President extended to May 2021
Narinder Batra will remain President of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) until May 2021.

• The Executive Board (EB) of the International Hockey Federation (FIH) has decided to postpone the 47th FIH Congress, initially planned on 28 October-1 November 2020 in New Delhi, to May 2021, in India’s capital city

AWARDS

IIMB ranked among top 50 global B-schools in executive education
Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) said it has been ranked among the Top 50 global schools, for the second year in succession, in the Financial Times Executive Education 2020 Rankings.

• The Financial Times announced its annual list of top 85 B-schools for custom programmes, top 75 B- schools for open programmes and a combined ranking for the Top 50 providers of executive education (open plus custom programmes).
• In this list, IIMB is ranked 45th in the combined ranking categories, 52nd in the custom, and 55th in the open programmes.

Bengaluru airport voted as best regional airport in India & Central Asia
Bangaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport  was voted by customers as the best regional airport in India & Central Asia for the third time in four years at the 2020 World Airport Awards.

• The Awards are based on the World Airport Survey questionnaires completed by over 100 nationalities of airport customers during the six-month survey period

OBITUARIES

Eminent historian Hari Shankar Vasudevan passes away
Eminent historian Hari Shankar Vasudevan died at a private hospital. He was 68.

• Vasudevan was considered one the foremost names in Russian and Central Asian history.
• He was involved in projects on Indo-Russian relations and the Radiating Globalities project initiated by Gayatri Spivak of Columbia University (New York).
• At ORF, he was evaluating the overlap between ‘Look East’ and ‘Look Far East’ policies of India and the relationship between Greater Eurasia ideas of the Russian establishment and Chinese establishment

‘Matka King’ Ratan Khatri passes away 
Ratan Khatri, considered by many as among the pioneers of betting in India, has died at his home in Navjeevan Society in Mumbai Central area. He was 88.

• Hailing from a Sindhi family, Khatri came to Mumbai from Karachi in Pakistan when he was a teenager during the partition in 1947.
• Famous for his ‘Matka King’ sobriquet, Khatri is credited with transforming matka (a form of gambling that originated in Mumbai in 1962) into India’s biggest betting racket and established a nation-wide gambling network that lasted for decades under his control.
• Khatri, who earlier worked with Kalyanji Bhagat when the latter started the Worli Matka, parted ways to form his own ‘Ratan Matka’.

Former Minister Ratnakar Rao passed away
Congress veteran and former minister Juvvadi Ratnakar Rao passed away at a hospital in Karimnagar district of Telangana on due to age-related illness. He was 92

• Ratnakar Rao was elected to Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly thrice in 1989, 1999 and 2004 from Buggaram assembly constituency and served as a Minister for Endowments between 2006 and 2009, Reddy, who was his cabinet colleague

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