Daily Current Affairs 16th June, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 16 June 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

Union Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh launches Feedback Call Centres on Public Grievances
Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Dr. Jitendra Singh launched the Feedback Call Centres on Public Grievances and interacted live with citizens whose grievances have been successfully redressed on the COVID-19 National Monitor for Public Grievances.

• Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances has  operationalized Feed Back Call Centers in collaboration with BSNL in Bhubaneshwar, Guwhati, Jamshedpur, Vadodara, Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Ajmer, Guntur, Coimbatore and Guntakal with one thousand 406 call centre operators.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

India joins Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence
India joined the league of leading economies including USA, UK, EU, Australia, Canada, France and others to launch the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI).

• In collaboration with partners and international organizations, GPAI will bring together leading experts from industry, civil society, governments, and academia to collaborate to promote responsible evolution of Artificial Intelligence.
•  It will also evolve methodologies to show how Artificial Intelligence can be leveraged to better respond to the present global crisis around COVID-19.
• By joining GPAI as a founding member, India will actively participate in the global development of Artificial Intelligence, leveraging its experience around use of digital technologies for inclusive growth.

India, with 12 nations, leads initiative at UN to counter misinformation on COVID-19
India, along with 12 other countries, has led an initiative here aimed at spreading fact-based content to counter misinformation on the coronavirus, with over 130 nations endorsing the global call to fight the “infodemic” relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.

• On the initiative by Australia, Chile, France, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lebanon, Mauritius, Mexico, Norway, Senegal and South Africa, a total of 132 member states endorsed a cross-regional statement on “infodemic” or manipulated information.
• India’s Permanent Mission to the UN said that it supported the UN Communications Response initiative ‘#VERIFIED’ and “calls for global action to fight infodemic in times of COVID-19.

BANKING & FINANCE

ICICI Bank launches Insta Flexicash for salary account holders 
Private lender ICICI Bank has unveiled a paperless facility that will enable its salary account customers to get approvals for overdraft (OD) instantaneously.

•  Titled as ‘Insta Flexicash’, the end-to-end fully digital service can be used on the lender’s internet banking platform.
• The product is being introduced at a time when consumption-linked retail credit growth has decreased.
• According to the latest data by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), retail loans increased just by 12% year-on-year (y-o-y) in April against 15.7% a year ago.

EPFO launches “Multi Location Claim Settlement” facility
The Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) said it has launched a multi-location claim settlement facility, which will allow claim settlement from any of its regional offices across the country.

• The facility will bring a paradigm shift by allowing its offices to settle online claims from any of its regional offices, across the country.
• All types of online claims i.e. provident fund, pension, partial withdrawal and claims and transfer claims can be processed under this novel initiative.

Airtel Payments Bank launches ‘Suraksha salary account’ for MSMEs
Airtel Payments Bank launched a new salary account for micro, small and medium enterprises. Called the Suraksha Salary account, it will enable MSMEs and other organisations to make cashless payments and provide a financial security blanket to their employees.

• Suraksha Salary account offers a wide range of benefits including Hospicash Insurance and Personal Accidental insurance cover given the low penetration of insurance in India.
• The account has no minimum balance condition. It offers no charges on cash withdrawals of upto Rs 50,000 and deposits of upto Rs 20,000 in one month.
• The account holder also gets two free cardless cash withdrawal via IMT at ATMs across the country. The account holder can make online money transfers to any bank across India.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

IBBI restructures committee related to corporate insolvency resolution process
In pursuance of regulation 3 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Board of India (IBBI) advisory committee regulation 2017, the IBBI board has restructured an advisory committee on Corporate Insolvency Resolution and Liquidation process by including four new members.

• The new 14 member committee will be headed by Uday Kotak, the Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
• The committee will suggest and provide professional support on a request from the IBBI or on its own volition on any matter with respect to the Corporate Insolvency resolution and liquidation dealt with by the Board under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016.

Dharmendra Pradhan Launches Indian Gas Exchange – First Nationwide Online Delivery Based Gas Trading Platform
Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel Dharmendra Pradhan launched the Indian Gas Exchange (IGX), first nationwide online delivery-based gas trading platform.

•  IGX will be a delivery-based trading platform for delivery of natural Gas. The trade on the platform commenced in his auspicious presence.
• Incorporated as a wholly owned subsidiary of the IEX – India’s energy market platform, IGX will enable market participants to trade in standardised gas contracts. The platform is fully automated with web-based interface to provide seamless trading experience to the customers.

AWARDS

Chef Angad Singh Rana bags Quality NZ Culinary Cup 2020 
Cricketer Stephen Fleming announced Chef Angad Singh Rana as the winner of New Zealand’s first ‘Virtual’ Chef competition – the ‘Quality NZ Culinary Cup’ held in India.

• Chef Angad Singh Rana grabbed the QualityNZ Culinary Cup 2020 along with INR 50,000 worth of QualityNZ lamb and seafood and a Weber BBQ valued at over INR 46,000.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

MoS Home G Kishan Reddy launches robot to assist COVID-19 workers in Telangana
Union Minister of State for Home affairs G. Kishan Reddy launched ‘GermiBAN’, a device developed by Atal Incubation Centre & Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of India-Women Entrepreneurs HUB.

• The device can kill 99.9% of surface and air microbes and is useful for isolation wards, quarantine centres, hospitals and all general places for killing viruses like coronavirus.

OBITUARIES

Former New Zealand cricketer Matt Poore passes away
Former New Zealand Test cricketer Matt Poore, who is remembered for catching a stray dog during a match in Bangalore in 1955 and subsequently taking 12 anti-rabies injection, has died at the age of 90.

• Poore featured in 14 Tests for the Black Caps, scoring 355 runs and picking up nine wickets between 1953-1956. He also played 61 Tests for Canterbury and scored 2,336 runs and ended up with 68 wickets

Uttarakhand folk singer Heera Singh Rana passes away
Noted folk singer of Uttarakhand Heera Singh Rana died at the age of 78 in Delhi due to a heart attack.

• Rana began singing in various forums since the age of 15. Recently he was appointed vice-chairman of Garhwal, Kumaoni and Jaunsari Academy by the government of Delhi.
• In 1980s and 1990s, his songs like ‘Rangile Bindi Ghanghri kai dhoti lal kinara yai hai-hair re mijata’ became were very popular among the hilly regions of the state. His song ‘Tyar pahad-myar pahad hoi dukhon ko dyar pahad’ depicted the migration problem of the hills.
• Rana’s folk songs not only entertained people but were also used by locals in several agitations and movements in the hill state.

Former Lok Sabha MP Madhavrao Patil passes away
Former Lok Sabha MP and founder of Janalaxmi Cooperative Bank Madhavrao Patil died after a brief illness in Maharashtra’s Nashik district.He was 80.

• Patil had won from Nashik Lok Sabha constituency on a Congress ticket in 1998.
• He was a big supporter of Sharad Pawar and was among the first to join when the latter formed the Nationalist Congress Party in 1999.

BOOKS & AUTHORS

Naoroji: Pioneer of Indian Nationalism Biography by Dinyar Patel released 
Dinyar Patel’s superb biography of the pioneering Indian nationalist Dadabhai Naoroji has been released by Harper Collins.

• Mahatma Gandhi called Dadabhai Naoroji the ‘father of the nation’, a title that today is reserved for Gandhi himself.
• Dinyar Patel examines the extraordinary life of this foundational figure in India’s modern political history, a devastating critic of British colonialism who served in Parliament as the first-ever Indian MP, forged ties with anti-imperialists around the world, and established self-rule or swaraj as India’s objective.

IMPORTANT DAYS

International Day of Family Remittances 
International Day of Family Remittances 2020 ( IDFR) is celebrated each year on June 16 across the world. The day is organised by the United Nations and is universally accepted.

•  This day is celebrated to recognise the efforts of migrants who help to improve the lives of their family members back home.
• International Day of Family Remittances 2020 theme is “Remittances are a lifeline.”

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