Daily Current Affairs 19th March, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 14 March 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

20,820 hospitals empanelled under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana till March 11
A total number of 20,820 hospitals have been empanelled under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana till 11th of this month.

• Total 9,271 private hospitals have been empanelled under the scheme to provide cashless secondary and tertiary care services to entitled beneficiaries.

Financial benefit under PM- Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana released to 8,69,79,391 beneficiaries: Agriculture Minister
Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar informed the Lok Sabha that financial benefit under the PM- Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojana has been released to 8 Crore 69 lakh 79 thousand 391 beneficiaries in the country.

• The Minister also informed that under PM-KISAN Scheme, funds are not released State-wise but transferred directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries identified by the State Governments

Banihal to Katra railway link to be completed by 2022: Goyal in Rajya Sabha
Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal announced that Banihal to Katra railway link in Jammu and Kashmir will be completed by 2022.

• The Katra-Banihal railway track is a 111-km long stretch which would link Kashmir Valley with the rest of the country by train.

Govt presents Budget of over Rs 1 lakh crore for J&K for FY”21
Lok Sabha approved over Rs 1-lakh crore Budget for Jammu and Kashmir for 2020-21 with emphasis on the development of newly carved-out Union Territory.

• The government also presented a separate expenditure plan of Rs 55,317.81 crore for the last five months of the current fiscal.
• This is the highest-ever Budget envisaged for Jammu and Kashmir. The total budget estimates for the fiscal is Rs 1,01,428 crore, of which developmental expenditure is of the order of Rs 38,764 crore, an increase of 27 per cent.
• The capital component of the Budget has increased substantially and the expected revenue receipts are Rs 91,100 crore, whereas revenue expenditure is expected to be Rs 62,664 crore, thereby making available revenue surplus for capital expenditure to the tune of Rs 28,436 crore

More than Rs 20,000 crores of loans sanctioned under Stand Up India Scheme since inception
Rs 20,466.94 crores of loans have been sanctioned under Stand Up India Scheme to over 91,000 accounts upto 10.03.2020 since inception of the Scheme said by Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of State for Finance & Corporate Affairs.

• The Scheme facilitates bank loans between Rs. 10 lakh and Rs. 1 crore to at least one Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe borrower and at least one woman borrower, per bank branch of Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs), for setting up greenfield enterprises in the manufacturing, services or the trading sectors.

BANKING & FINANCE

Paytm Payments Bank to issue Visa debit cards
Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) announced that it will now start issuing Visa debit cards to its customers.

• With this partnership, Paytm is targeting to issue over 10 million new digital debit cards in FY 20-21.
•  The bank, known for introducing neo-banking in the country, is already the largest issuer of RuPay Debit Cards and has the fastest growing bank account base.

World Bank increases COVID-19 response funding to 14 bln USD
World Bank has announced 14 billion US Dollars to assist companies and countries in their efforts to respond to the rapid spread of COVID-19. It has added 2 billion dollars to the initial package.

• The announcement came amid fear of a major global recession in the wake of the coronavirus that has impacted more than 120 countries

SBI Funds Management adopts stewardship code as mandated by Sebi
SBI Funds Management, a joint venture between India’s largest bank SBI and European asset manager Amundi, has become the first fund house to implement the stewardship code in India from April 1,2020

• Stewardship code which requires the fund house to monitor its investor companies and establish voting policies. 
• This is aimed at complying with markets regulator Sebi’s directive, which mandated all mutual funds and alternative investment funds in the country to adopt a stewardship code, which is applicable for investments in listed equities.

ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS

State Bank of India acquires 6.82% stake in Zero Mass
State Bank of India has entered into an agreement to acquire 6.825% stake in Zero Mass. As part of the deal, the Bank has sold its entire stake in A Little World to the Zero Mass. This is a no cash deal.

• ZERO Mass Pvt. Ltd. is the first ever Business Correspondent in the country providing business correspondent and business facilitator services to banks through a last line local entrepreneur distribution of network to enable provision of services related to financial inclusion, remittances etc. pan lndia.

APPOINTMENTS

Google Cloud appoints Karan Bajwa as India MD
Google said it has appointed former IBM executive, Karan Bajwa as Managing Director of Google Cloud in India.

• He will be responsible for driving all revenue and go-to-market operations for Google Cloud’s portfolio that includes Google Cloud Platform and G Suite.

AWARDS

Konark sun temple & Statue of Unity finds place in iconic tourism sites list
World-famous Sun Temple in Konark has been included under the country’s list of 19 monuments which will be developed as iconic sites by the Centre. This was informed by Union Culture and Tourism Minister Prahlad Singh Patel.

• Statue of Unity is added to the list of 19 monuments identified for development of world-class infrastructure to attract tourists.

OBITUARIES

Bollywood actor Imtiaz Khan passes away
Bollywood actor and theatre personality, Imtiaz Khan has passed away in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He was 77.

• Imtiaz, who acted in 80-odd Hindi films, mostly in negative roles, from 1970s and 1990s, was a trained actor who had made a mark in theatre long before he was drawn to movies.
•  Imtiaz was also part of Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche, a surprise hit which led its producers, Ramsay Brothers, to set up a factory of low-budget horror films

BOOKS & AUTHORS

Gadkari presents ‘Invincible – A Tribute to Manohar Parrikar’ to President
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari presented a copy of the book — ‘Invincible – A Tribute to Manohar Parrikar’ — to President Ram Nath Kovind

• Parrikar, who was Goa’s Chief Minister and also a Defence Minister, succumbed to his illness on March 17, 2019.

Former HP assembly deputy speaker Rikhi Ram Kaundal passes away
Former Himachal Pradesh assembly deputy speaker Rikhi Ram Kaundal passed away early Tuesday morning due to cardiac arrest. He was 70.

• Rikhi, a senior BJP leader, was elected member of the state legislative assembly five times from Bilaspur’s Jhandutta constituency.
• However, he was not allocated a ticket by the BJP in the last assembly elections in 2017.

IMPORTANT DAYS

Global Recycling Day 
Global Recycling Day observed on 18th March 2020, to raise awareness of the importance of recycling and the ways we can turn ‘waste’ into a valuable resource.

• The Global Recycling Foundation is pleased to announce the theme of Global Recycling Day 2020 as #RecyclingHeroes.

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