Daily Current Affairs 26th December, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 26 December 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

East Coast Railway becomes first zone to adopt EOTT system in Indian Railways
The East Coast Railway (ECoR) has commissioned End of Train Telemetry (EOTT) system to run trains without guards. It is the first railway zone in the country to use the cutting edge technology for operation of trains without brake van and guards.

• The field trial for Indian Railways was conducted between Talcher and Paradip section recently when a freight train successfully reached destination with EOTT system in place. Electric Loco Shed, Angul has commissioned and tested the technology.
• EOTT system mainly consists of Head of Train (HOT) fitted in locomotive and End of Train (EOT) fitted on last vehicle of the train. EOTT has Global Positioning System (GPS) module to indicate location of the train and Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication module to transfer data to server besides the radio device for communication and control between HOT and EOT.

BANKING & FINANCE

RBI cancels Licence of Subhadra Local Area Bank, Kolhapur
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has, cancelled the banking licence issued to Subhadra Local Area Bank Ltd., Kolhapur, Maharashtra under Section 22 (4) of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 to carry on banking business in India.

• The order is made effective from close of business on December 24, 2020.
• The bank had breached the minimum net worth requirement for two quarters in the financial year 2019-20. However, Subhadra Local Area Bank has enough liquidity to pay all its depositors.

Central Bank of India to exit housing finance business; to sell JV stake for Rs 160 crore
State-owned Central Bank of India will exit housing finance joint venture by selling its entire stake of over 64 per cent to Centrum Housing Finance for Rs 160 crore.

• According to a separate filing by Centrum Capital, the parent of Centrum Housing, the cost of acquisition is about Rs 160 crore on cash basis.
• Centrum Capital said the deal is expected to be closed in about two to three months.

HDFC Bank top among 100 BFSI firms; Google Pay No.1 in UPI payments
HDFC Bank has emerged as the top player among the 100 Banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) companies in the country. The country’s largest private lender topped because of its customer service, monetary management, and innovative offerings amid the coronavirus pandemic.

• Overall, HDFC, ICICI, SBI, Yes Bank, PNB, HSBC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bank of Baroda, Deutsche Bank, and IDBI emerged as the top 10 banks of 2020, as per Wizikey’s BFSI Movers and Shakers report. 
• The ICICI Bank became the most preferred bank in terms of moratorium rules, new loan policy, as well as discounts, offers on credit cards. It became the first in India to use satellite data to assess farmer loans.
• In the wallet and UPI segment, Google Pay emerged as the number one mover and shaker, followed by Phone Pe. While Whatsapp stayed behind all other players like Paytm (3) and Amazon Pay (4).
• Neo Banks was another category that witnessed a lot of buzz in the year riding the trend owing to the digitisation. YONO emerged as the number one followed by Niyo and Kotak 811 at ranks 2 and 3 respectively in the category.
• In the payments bank category, the Airtel Payments Bank emerged as the leader, followed by Paytm Payments Bank and Jio Payments Bank.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

India Ratings revises FY21 GDP growth expectation to minus 7.8% from minus 11.8%
India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) revised its expectation for India’s FY21 gross domestic product (GDP) growth to negative 7.8 per cent from negative 11.8 per cent due to easing of Covid-19 headwinds and better-than-expected 2Q FY21 GDP numbers.

• Ind-Ra now expects 3Q FY21 GDP growth to come in at negative 0.8 per cent and 4Q FY21 GDP growth to turn positive at 0.3 per cent as against its earlier expectation it turning positive in 4Q FY22.
• The agency expects FY22 growth to be 9.6 per cent, mainly due to the weak base of FY21.

SPORTS

Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik announces construction of new world class hockey stadium in Rourkela
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced the construction of a new world class hockey stadium in Rourkela.

• The proposed stadium, being built as the largest one in the country, will host the Men’s World Cup Hockey World Cup in 2023 with a seating capacity of 20,000 spectators.

APPOINTMENTS

Florin Citu to be Romania’s next prime minister 
Romanian lawmakers have approved a new center-right pro-Western coalition government headed by U.S.-educated banker Florin Citu, a former finance minister who has pledged to overcome the coronavirus crisis and the economic woes it has caus. ed

• Some 260 lawmakers in the freshly elected parliament voted in favor of approving Citu’s cabinet, with 186 against.
• Shortly after the vote, the new cabinet was sworn in by President Klaus Iohannis.

Yes Securities elevates Prasanth Prabhakaran as MD & CEO
YES Securities, the wholly owned investment banking, merchant banking, wealth broking & investment advisory subsidiary of YES Bank, announced the elevation of Prasanth Prabhakaran as its managing director and chief executive officer with immediate effect.

• Prabhakaran was previously the Joint MD and CEO of Yes Securities, spearheading the wealth broking and investment advisory and institutional equities business.

ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS 

SBI Life Insurance acquires 8.99% stake in Paisalo Digital
SBI Life Insurance said it had acquired 8.99 per cent stake in Paisalo Digital.

• The transaction was for cash consideration of about ₹186.20 crore. 
• It has purchased 38 lakh equity shares of the company at ₹489.99 apiece, it further said, adding that the purchase was done in the normal course of business.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Odisha Launches Career Portal For Students In Collaboration With UNICEF
The Odisha government in collaboration with UNICEF has launched a ‘Career Portal’ for secondary and higher secondary students.

• The portal will provide easy access to information on different careers and will give students an opportunity to interact with teachers.
• Students will also be able to access career guidance services through a mobile friendly app created specifically for the portal.

Punjab Government launches mobile app and web portal ‘PR Insight’
Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh launched Mobile Application and web portal called ‘PR Insight’ to improve the delivery of citizen centric services, based upon the feedback of its citizens on government policies.

• The basic objective of PR Insight is to re-orient the existing schemes and programmes of the state government to the people’s satisfaction after meticulously monitoring their feedback.
• The app will monitor the citizens feedback and subsequently ensure responsive and transparent administration in the State.

‘Swachhata Abhiyan’ app launched to help rehabilitate manual scavengers
A mobile application named  ”Swachhata Abhiyan” to identify and geotag insanitary latrines and manual scavengers was launched by Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Thaawarchand Gehlot. 

• This app would help in rehabilitating all manual scavengers and replace insanitary latrines with sanitary ones.
• In the absence of any authentic data base regarding the location of insanitary latrines, it has been decided to seek the help of NGOs, Social Organisations and general public for collection and compilation of the data.

Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri launches E-Sampada web portal and mobile app on Good Governance Day
Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Singh Puri launched E-Sampada, a new web portal and mobile app on Good Governance Day.

• The new application provides a single window for all the services including allotment for over one lakh government residential accommodations, office space allotment to government organisations in 45 office complexes in 28 cities and booking of 1,176 holiday home rooms.
• The portal provides online facility to users across India to lodge complaints, submit documents and appear for virtual hearing.

ENVIRONMENT

India adds Tso Kar Wetland Complex in Ladakh as its 42nd Ramsar site
India has added Tso Kar Wetland Complex in Ladakh as its 42nd Ramsar site, which is a second one in the Union Territory of Ladakh.

• The Tso Kar Basin is a high-altitude wetland complex, consisting of two principal waterbodies, Startsapuk Tso, a freshwater lake of about 438 hectares to the south, and Tso Kar itself, a hypersaline lake of 1800 hectares to the north, situated in the Changthang region of Ladakh.
• The Tso Kar Basin is an A1 Category Important Bird Area as per Bird Life International and a key staging site in the Central Asian Flyway. The site is also one of the most important breeding areas of the Black-necked Crane in India.

IMPORTANT DAYS

National Good Governance Day
National Good governance day is observed annually on December 25.

• The day is also celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of India’s former Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
• The day aims to let the citizens, the students, who are the future of the country know about the government’s responsibilities and duties that it needs to fulfill.

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