Daily Current Affairs 24th April, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 24 April 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

JKSLSA launches helpline under ‘Serve-the-Seniors Initiative’ for senior citizens
Jammu and Kashmir State legal Services Authority (JKSLSA) has launched a helpline under ‘Serve-the-Seniors Initiative’ under the guidance of Justice Gita Mittal, Patron-in-Chief and Justice Rajesh Bindal Executive Chairman of State Legal Services Authority.

• The objective of starting this helpline, comprising is to help and facilitate the senior citizens who live alone and are unable to step out to get medicines, groceries and other essentials in this hour of crisis.

UP becomes first state with in-house facility of virtual courts
Amid the country-wide corona-triggered lockdown , Uttar Pradesh has become the first state to have the requisite infrastructure in all its courts for hearing cases through video conferencing.

• The Allahabad High Court took a number of initiatives to facilitate court proceedings through video conferencing and recently a software has been installed in the high court and district courts of the state, said high court’s Registrar (Protocol) Ashish Srivastava.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

UNODC launches series of online dialogues with students & educators in India on COVID-19
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC) has launched a ‘Lockdown Learners’ series of online dialogues with students and educators in India on COVID-19 and its impact on Sustainable Development Goals, peace and rule of law.

• The dialogues have been launched by the United Nations body under its flagship Education for Justice
• The Lockdown Learners series also provides a platform for students to receive mentorship and knowledge support through activity-based learning, and use their talent and skills to promote awareness and share their ideas and solutions to address some of these problems

India approves US$ 1 million to Antigua as project outlay
India has approved USD 1 million to Antigua as project outlay, with immediate assistance of USD 1,50,000 for medical equipment to combat coronavirus crisis.

• In order to help the world to combat the coronavirus, India has sent medical supplies including hydroxychloroquine tablets to several countries.
• Early this month, India announced that it will send hydroxychloroquine to 55 nations to fight COVID19 including Kazakhstan

BANKING & FINANCE

RBI allows banks to issue electronic cards for overdraft accounts
Relaxing norms, the Reserve Bank of India permitted banks to issue electronic cards to persons having overdraft accounts that are only in the nature of personal loan without any specific end-use restrictions.

• Banks, as per the central bank’s July 2015 directions, were permitted to issue debit cards to customers having bank/current accounts but not to cash credit/loan account holders.
• The electronic card for overdraft accounts in the nature of personal loans should be allowed to be used for domestic transactions only, the RBI added.

IOB unveils working capital loans for agriculture sector
 Public sector lender Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has launched an exclusive credit facility for agriculture and allied activities.

• Titled WCDL-Agri (working capital demand loan – agriculture), these loans will be available to all existing borrowers enjoying cash credit/OD facilities, from sectors such as agriculture, poultry, dairy, fisheries and allied activities, said the bank. 
• This scheme is valid up to June 30 and is available to all existing borrowers enjoying cash credit/OD for sectors such as poultry, dairy, fisheries and other allied activities, said the bank in a statement.As per the bank’s policy, only accounts that are standard and performing as at March 2020 are eligible for these loans.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

India’s GDP growth likely to range up to 1.5% in FY21: CII
India’s GDP is likely to range between a decline of 0.9 per cent and a growth of 1.5 per cent in the current financial year, with the economy undergoing a “turbulent” phase caused by the coronavirus-induced lockdown, according to a report.

• The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in a paper – A plan for economic recovery – has laid out its growth expectation under three scenarios and suggested “urgent” fiscal interventions.
• In the baseline scenario, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is expected to grow at just 0.6% on an annual basis as economic activity is expected to remain constrained due to continuing restrictions on the free movement of goods and people beyond the lockdown period.

Amazon launches programme to enable kirana shops, offline retailers sell online
E-commerce giant Amazon India launched ‘Local Shops on Amazon’ programme that will help local shopkeepers and kirana store owners to sell online.

• The company said it has been running a pilot with more than 5,000 offline retailers and local shops over the last six months to bring the benefits of online selling closer to them.
•  ‘Local Shops on Amazon’, this programme helps customers discover products from local shops in their city from the convenience of their homes, while helping shopkeepers supplement their footfalls with a digital presence and expand beyond their normal catchment.

Fitch cuts India FY21 growth estimates to 0.8% from 2%
Fitch Ratings lowered India’s economic growth forecast for current fiscal year 2020-21 to 0.8 per cent from 1.8 per cent estimated barely three days ago, citing fall in consumer spending and fixed investment due to extension of coronavirus lockdown and disruption in economic activities.

• The decline in GDP growth was attributed to a projected fall in consumer spending to just 0.3 per cent in FY21 from 5.5 per cent a year back and a 3.5 per cent contraction in fixed investment.

SIDBI to provide special liquidity for on-lending to MSMEs
Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) said it will provide special liquidity to banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and microfinance institutions for on-lending to micro, small and medium enterprises that are affected by the COVID-19-related disruptions.

• The liquidity will be offered to banks, NBFCs and MFIs as term loans for a tenor of 90 days and for a maximum period of one year. 
• SIDBI provided a special liquidity window of Rs 15,000 crore by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to enable MSMEs to tide over their liquidity crunch. The funds will be channelized to MSMEs through eligible banks, NBFCs and MFIs.

SPORTS

World Games unveil new logo, title for 2022 edition
The World Games to be held in Birmingham, Alabama — which have been delayed due to the coronavirus outbreak — have unveiled a new logo and a new title.

• With the announcement of The Games shift to July 7-17, 2022, organisers have decided that the international multi-sport event will officially become ‘The World Games 2022′

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

IGIB scientists develop low cost COVID-19 test; name it after detective character ‘Feluda’
Scientists at the CSIR”s Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology have come up with a low-cost coronavirus test that will not require any expensive machines for detection of the pathogen.

• Named after ”Feluda”, the detective character in legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s stories, the test has been developed by Debojyoti Chakraborty and Souvik Maiti as a simpler way of detecting SARS-coV2 presence in clinical samples

OBITUARIES

Eminent theatre actor Usha Ganguly passes away at 75
Usha Ganguly, veteran theatre actor and director, passed away after suffering from a cardiac arrest. She was 75.

• She founded the Rangakarmee group in 1976, which is known for non-conformist productions like ‘Mahabhoj’,’Rudali’, ‘Court Martial’ and ‘Antaryatra’.
• Usha Ganguly was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Direction in 1998. She was also honoured as the best actress for the play Gudia Ghar by the state government of West Bengal.

IMPORTANT DAYS

National Panchayati Raj Day
National Panchayati Raj Day is the national day of Panchayati Raj System in India celebrated by Ministry of Panchayati Raj on 24 April annually.

• PM Narendra Modi inaugurated a unified e-GramSwaraj Portal and mobile application on the occasion of National Panchayati Raj Day . The portal is a new initiative of the Panchayati Raj Ministry to provide all the gram panchayats with one single interface to prepare and implement their gram panchayat development plan (GPDP).
• The Prime Minister also launched the Swamitva Scheme on the occasion, which will provide an integrated property validation solution for rural India.  The scheme is expected to boost the government’s efforts to alleviate poverty in rural areas.

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