Daily Current Affairs 22nd March, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 22 March 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

Tamil Nadu’s sanitary workers to be called ‘cleanliness workers’: CM
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami announced in the Assembly that 64,583 sanitary personnel employed by urban and rural civic bodies in the State will from now on be called ”cleanliness workers” to honour their work.

• As many as 64,583 sanitary workers are employed with 15 corporations, 121 municipalities, 528 town panchayats and 12,525 village panchayats.

CBSE launches helpline number for students to create awareness on coronavirus
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) launched a helpline number for students to create awareness on the coronavirus pandemic.

• The facility is available on 1800 11 8004 from 8 am to 8 pm, initially up to March 31.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Nepal Commits NPR 100 million to SAARC emergency fund to fight COVID-19 outbreak
Nepal has committed NPR 100 million to the SAARC emergency fund proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to help combat the coronavirus pandemic in the region.

• The announcement in this regard was made by Nepal Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli during his first address to the nation after undergoing a kidney transplant

BANKING & FINANCE

COVID-19 outbreak: BRICS New Development Bank approves nearly USD 1 bn loan to China
China is set to receive a loan worth RMB 7 billion (USD 989 million) from the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) in order to combat the epidemiological threat and economic disruption caused by the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak.

• The loan is the largest ever awarded in the NDB’s history and is also the first emergency assistance given to one of BRICS’ member

IRDAI sets up panel on governance at insurers
The country’s insurance regulator IRDA has set up a 16-member committee to find ways to improve corporate governance systems of insurers, primarily on making key functions such as risk management and internal audits independent of each other.

• The committee will be headed by Pravin Kutumbe, member-finance and investment at IRDAI and has six other members from the insurance regulator besides members from the Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India along with other industry participants.

•  It has been asked to submit the report to IRDAI in three months.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Crisil lowers FY21 growth by 50 bps to 5.2%
The Covid-19 pandemic will leave the economy crippled next fiscal pulling down the growth to a low of 5.2 per cent, warns Crisil that had earlier forecast the GDP printing in a 5.7 per cent expansion..

• For instance, the house economists at Bank of America Securities India lowered India growth forecast to 4.1 per cent for FY2021, just a day after slashing their forecast by 80 bps to 5.1 per cent.

TRIFED Launches transformational “Tech For Tribals” program
A game changing and unique project aimed to transform 5 crore Tribal Entrepreneurs under the name “Tech for Tribal” has been launched by TRIFED.

•  It was launched by TRIFED and IIT-Kanpur along with IIT-Roorkee, IIM Indore, Kalinga Institute of Social Science, Bhubaneshwar and SRIJAN, Jaipurin the first phase of organising tribal entrepreneurship and skill development program.
• Tech for Tribals, an initiative of TRIFED supported by Ministry of MSME, aims at capacity building and imparting entrepreneurship skills totribal forest produce gatherers enrolled under the Pradhan Mantri VanDhan Yojana(PMVDY). The trainees will undergo a 30 days program over six weeks comprising 120 sessions.

IMPORTANT DAYS

World Water Day
World Water Day is observed globally on 22nd March every year. It focuses on the importance of freshwater. World Water Day celebrates water and raises awareness of the 2.2 billion people living without access to safe water. A core focus of World Water Day is to support the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 6: water and sanitation for all by 2030.

• The theme of World Water Day 2020 is “Water and Climate Change”

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