Daily Current Affairs 19th June, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 19 June 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

Harsh Vardhan launches India’s 1st Mobile Lab for COVID-19
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan launched India’s first mobile laboratory for Covid-19 testing in rural and inaccessible areas of India.

• To ensure testing facilities in far-flung areas, such innovations have been developed in the interior, inaccessible parts of the country.
• The lab has the capability to perform 25 RT-PCR tests per day, 300 ELISA tests per day and additional tests for TB, HIV as per CGHS rates.

BANKING & FINANCE

BoB to completely digitize its lending operations
India’s 3rd largest lender, Bank of Baroda will completely digitize its lending operations including home, agriculture, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises(MSME), personal and auto loans.

• The validation and disbursal of fresh loans will happen via this digital platform while past loans will also be digitised to cut costs and improve profitability.
• The bank is planning to digitise a large proportion of its retail and MSME processes in the next six months.

ICICI Home Finance launches “SARAL” scheme for affordable house loan
ICICI Home Finance (ICICI HFC) has launched SARAL – an Affordable Housing Loan. This housing loan will be aimed to fund homes in urban and rural areas.

• It has been developed for women, lower-middle-income customers, and economically weaker sections who have a maximum household income up to Rs 6 lakhs annually. 
• SARAL offers affordable housing loans up to ₹35 lakh at an interest rate starting from 7.98 per cent onwards, for a maximum tenure of 20 years. 

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

British Petroleum to set up Global Business Service Centre in Pune
British Petroleum’s (BP) India is planning to set up a global business service centre in Pune and hire 2000 people for the same.

• The global business service (GBS) centre is expected to begin operations by January next year and will provide business processing and advanced analytics capabilities in support of BP businesses worldwide. When fully operational it is expected to employ around 2,000 staff

ADB forecasts Indian economy to contract 4% in FY21
Hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, the Indian economy is expected to contract by 4 per cent during the current financial year, the ADB said in a supplement to its Asian Development Outlook (ADO).

• Countries in Developing Asia will “barely grow” in 2020, as per the ADB forecast.
• The development bank expects Asia’s third largest economy to bounce back in FY22 and grow at 5% as economic activity normalises gradually.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Mumbai gets ‘Air-Venti’ App to provide information on ICU beds, ventilators
Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has launched a mobile application “Air-Venti” to help the city’s residents to get information about the availability of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds and Ventilators in both the government and private hospitals around them.

• Octaware Technologies Limited, in partnership with Probity Soft Pvt Ltd, has developed this mobile application for MCGM.
• The application will be connected to the dashboard of Mumbai’s disaster control room and can also be accessed through the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation app.

APPOINTMENTS

Volkan Bozkir becomes new president of 75th UN General Assembly
Turkish’s diplomat Volkan Bozkir has been elected president of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly.

• The 75th session of the UN General Assembly begins in September 2020.
• Bozkir won the unanimous support of the 178 UN members. He will take over from Tijjani Muhammad-Bande, the present General Assembly president.

AQUISITIONS & MERGERS

CCI approves acquisition of Metso Minerals business by Outotec
The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the acquisition of Metso Oyj’s (Metso) minerals business by Outotec Oyj (Outotec) under Section 31(1) of the Competition Act, 2002.

• The proposed combination relates to the acquisition of Metso’s minerals business (Metso Minerals) by Outotec.
• The combined entity would operate under the name Metso Outotec and the remainder of Metso”s business (Metso”s flow control business) would continue to exist independently under the name ”Neles”

OBITUARIES

Malayalam film director KR Sachidanandan passes away
Malayalam screenwriter and director K R Sachidanandan, popularly known as Sachy, passed away in Thrissur following a cardiac arrest. He was 48.

• His directorial debut was Anarkali in 2015. He had co-scripted numerous movies with Sethu and later began composing solo contents.
• Sachy was a rehearsing legal advisor at the Kerala High Court.

IMPORTANT DAYS

Karnataka Government observes “Mask Day” on 18 June
Karnataka government observed ‘Mask Day’ on June 18 to create awareness in the masses about the importance of wearing one amid the Covid pandemic.

• The Mask Day was observed to aware the people about the use of masks, sanitisers, washing hands with soap in order to control the spread of COVID-19 in the state. It also urged the people to maintain the social distancing norms.

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