Daily Current Affairs 27th December, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 27 December 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

PM Modi launches Ayushman Bharat PMJAY SEHAT scheme for residents of J-K
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) SEHAT scheme via video-conferencing to extend health insurance coverage to all residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

• AB-PMJAY is a flagship health scheme of the central government, which was launched in 2018, and provides a cover of up to Rs 500,000 per family every year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalisation.

Assam cabinet approves Bill to make Bodo associate official language of state
The Assam cabinet approved the Assam Official Language Amendment Bill for making Bodo (in Devanagari script) an associate official language of the state.

• The development comes 11 months after signing of the third Bodo peace accord between the Centre, Assam government, four Bodo rebel groups and two Bodo organizations, which included declaring Bodo as associate official language as one of the clauses.
• The Bill is expected to be tabled in the next assembly session scheduled later this month. It would be the last session of the assembly before the polls expected in March-April next year.

Ministry of skills development joins hands with Microsoft and NASSCOM for digital learning content at ITIs
The Directorate General of Training (DGT), under the ministry of skills development and entrepreneurship, has joined hands with Microsoft and NASSCOM Foundation to provide digital learning content for students at industrial training institutes (ITIs).

• Nearly 1,20,000 students in around 3000 ITIs across India can be benefited by this digitized e-learning module via the Bharatskills portal. 
• Microsoft has also facilitated access to the free content available on the Microsoft Learn platform for more than 24 lakh students in the ITI ecosystem, by linking the Global Skilling Initiative (GSI) through the Bharatskills platform. Further, it is supporting the digitisation of the entire content of a popular course – ‘Computer Operating and Programming Assistant’ (COPA) through the NASSCOM Foundation and also in conducting faculty development programmes to build capacities of the trainers or faculties in the NSTIs and ITIs.

BANKING & FINANCE

Govt Shells Out Rs 22,087 Crore as Interest Towards Recapitalisation Bonds for Banks
The government has spent Rs 22,086.54 crore as interest payment towards the recapitalisation bonds for the public sector banks (PSB) in the last two financial years.

• During 2018-19, the government paid Rs 5,800.55 crore as interest on such bonds issued to public sector banks for pumping in capital so that they could meet the regulatory norms under the Basel-III guidelines.
• In the subsequent year, according to official document, the interest payment by the government surged three times to Rs 16,285.99 crore to PSBs as they have been holding these papers.

Punjab National Bank introduces PNB e-Credit Card
Nation’s leading public sector bank, Punjab National Bank (PNB), introduced PNB e-Credit Card, a digital replica of a physical Credit Card.

• It will allow PNB customers to use PNB e-credit card at any e-commerce platform or merchant website, without the need of carrying the physical card.
• Customers can view PNB e-Credit Cards details by clicking on e-Credit Card facility in PNB Genie Mobile app. Existing PNB customers will need to update their PNB Genie with the latest app available on Google play store and Apple’s app store to use the new feature.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

India’s first lithium refinery to come up in Gujarat
India’s first Lithium refinery is soon going to be set up in Gujarat.The company will import Lithium ore from Australia and will be processing in Gujarat.

• Manikaran Power Limited, one of the country’s largest power trading and renewable energy company will incest around Rs 1,000 crore to set up this refinery.
• The refinery will process Lithium ore to produce battery-grade material.

US financial body announces $54 million investment to support India’s infra projects
An American financial corporation has announced to invest $54 million in India to support the development of critical infrastructure projects in the country in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• The financing is part of NIIF’s final round of fund-raising for the fund. NIIF will work to mobilise capital to support economic growth and address critical development challenges in the country.

India to Become 5th Largest Economy in 2025, 3rd Largest by 2030
India, which appears to have been pushed back to being the world’s sixth biggest economy in 2020, will again overtake the UK to become the fifth largest in 2025 and race to the third spot by 2030, the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) said in an annual report.

• India had overtaken the UK in 2019 to become the fifth largest economy in the world but has been relegated to 6th spot in 2020.
• The UK-based think tank forecast that China will in 2028 overtake the US to become the world’s biggest economy, five years earlier than previously estimated due to the contrasting recoveries of the two countries from the COVID-19 pandemic. Japan would remain the world’s third-biggest economy, in dollar terms, until the early 2030s when it would be overtaken by India, pushing Germany down from fourth to fifth.
• The CEBR forecasts that the Indian economy will expand by 9 per cent in 2021 and by 7 per cent in 2022.

OBITUARIES

Renowned Urdu poet and critic Shamsur Rahman Faruqi passes away
Accomplished Urdu litterateur Shamsur Rahman Faruqi, who wrote the sweeping and celebrated novel Kai Chand Thhey Sar-e-Aasmaan, who brought out the seminal literary magazine Shabkhoon, and who was central to the revival of dastangoi, passed away. He was 85.

• Faruqi’s book ‘Kai Chaand The Sar-e-Asmaan’, written in 2006, has been hailed as a masterpiece of Urdu fiction. An English version of this book ‘Mirror of Beauty’ was published in 2013. He has also translated his stories into English which are included in a book titled ‘The Sun That Rose from the Earth’ in 2014.
• He has also been credited with spearheading the revival of the Dastangoi – an urdu oral storytelling art form.
• He was awarded the Saraswati Samman in 1996 for his work ‘Sher-e Shor-Angez’, a study of the major eighteenth-century poet Meer Taqi Meer published in four volumes. He was honoured with the Padma Shri in 2009.

Former England batsman John Edrich passes away 
Former England opening batsman John Edrich passed away at the age of 83.

• John Edrich had a prolific career for England and scored more than 5,000 runs during a 77-match Test career, including 12 centuries.
• The batsman was also the captain of Surrey and hit 103 hundreds and more than 39,000 runs in first-class cricket.
• Edrich was part of the very first ODI that was played between England and Australia in January 1971 and has the distinction of being the Man-of-the-Match from that game.

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