Daily Current Affairs 27th June, 2021

Daily Current Affairs 27 June 2021 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

Govt extends the deadline of EV promotion scheme FAME-II till March 2024
The Union government announced decision to extend the second phase of the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and Electric vehicle (FAME) scheme by two years to March 31, 2024.

• The scheme, started in 2019 for promoting sales of electric vehicles, was supposed to end by 2022.
• The scheme is proposed to be implemented over a period of 3 years, w.e.f 1st April 2019, for faster adoption of electric mobility and development of its manufacturing eco-system in the country.

Goa has become first rabies-free state in country: CM
The Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that the state had not reported a single rabies case in the last three years, making it the first rabies-free state in the country.

• He added rabies control had been carried out by the ‘Mission Rabies’ project, being run through a central government grant.

PM interacts with participants of Toycathon-2021 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacted with participants of Toycathon-2021 via video conferencing.

• Toycathon 2021 was jointly launched by the Ministry of Education, WCD Ministry, MSME Ministry, DPIIT, Textile Ministry, I&B Ministry and AICTE on January 5.
• Speaking on the occasion, the Prime Minister said that in the last 5-6 years, the youth of the nation has been connected with the key challenges of the country through the platform of Hackathons. Thinking behind this is to organize the capabilities of the country and to give them a medium, he said.
• The Prime Minister said that the global toy market is about 100 billion dollars and India has only 1.5 per cent of this market.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

NSA Ajit Doval attends SCO meeting in Dushanbe
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval attended a meeting of the top security officials from the member nations of the Shanghai Corporation Organisation (SCO) in Tajikistan capital Dushanbe. Tajikistan, the current president of the SCO, is hosting the meeting of the top national security officials of the eight-nation grouping.

• The NSA level meeting was preceded by a Senior Officials Meeting (SOM). In addition to other security concerns to be discussed, the security officials will set the course for the annual “Regional Anti-Terror Structure” (RATS) mechanism joint exercises by SCO member troops, to be held in Pakistan this year, where Indian troops are due to attend.

Paris-based Financial Action Task Force (FATF) adds Malta, Haiti, the Philippines and South Sudan to gray list
A watchdog on the lookout for money laundering and terror financing said it has placed the tiny Mediterranean island nation of Malta on a list for increased monitoring.

• The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force, or FATF, added the European Union member to its so-called gray list, along with Haiti, the Philippines and South Sudan. 
• It is exceptional for an EU country to be put on this list, which also includes Pakistan, Zimbabwe and Syria. The move raised concerns in Malta about the potentially damaging impact on the nation’s economy. 

BANKING & FINANCE

World Bank sanctions Rs. 925 crore loan for Rebuild Kerala second phase
Two years after sanctioning an assistance of USD 250 million for the first phase of the Rebuild Kerala Initiative (RKI), the World Bank approved USD 125 million assistance for the second phase. 

• The aim of the Rebuild Kerala Initiative is to incorporate disaster risk planning in the master plans of urban and local self-governments and to help make the health, water resources management, agriculture, and works departments more resilient to calamities.

SBI Card partners with Fabindia to launch Fabindia SBI Card
SBI card, the country’s second-largest credit card issuer and Fabindia, a retail platform for a wide range of handcrafted products by the artisans of the country, have joined hands to launch an exclusive co-branded contactless credit card — Fabindia SBI Card.

• The card is designed with curated benefits and privileges to offer a rewarding shopping experience to its premium customers and comes in two variants — Fabindia SBI Card SELECT and Fabindia SBI Card.
• The card will offer a rewarding shopping experience to its premium customers.

India’s Bank Credit-To-GDP Ratio Grows 56% In 2020
Notwithstanding incremental credit growth plunging to a 59-year low at 5.56 per cent in FY21, the bank credit-to-GDP ratio rose to a five-year high of a little over 56 per cent in 2020, but way behind its peers and just half of the G20 average, according to the latest data from the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).

• At 56.075 per cent credit-to-GDP ratio, total outstanding bank credit stood at USD 1.52 trillion in the country in 2020, according to the BIS data for the year, but this is still the second lowest among all its Asian peers.
• And when it comes to the emerging market peers, it is 135.5 per cent and at 88.7 per cent in advanced economies.

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Indian economy may grow 8.4-10.1% in current financial year: NCAER
Economic think-tank NCAER expects the Indian economy to grow 8.4-10.1 per cent for the current financial year as against a contraction of 7.3 per cent in the last fiscal.

• Releasing its quarterly review of the economy, the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has pitched for strong fiscal support to push economic growth.
• As per the think-tank, fiscal deficit may remain high for a second consecutive year with revenues affected by the depressed level of economic activity.

Jio And Google Cloud To Collaborate On 5G Technology
Reliance Jio and Google Cloud have entered into a 5G partnership to connect a billion Indians to a faster internet, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said at the Reliance AGM. That’s in addition to the JioPhone Next smartphone that the two companies are developing.

• The partnership with Reliance Jio is “marquee” and one which will help the company get scale quickly and eventually lead to profitability.
• As part of the partnership, Reliance will also augment its compute workload for retail business taking advantage of Google’s AI/ML, e-commerce, and demand forecasting offerings.

SPORTS

Sajan Prakash becomes first Indian swimmer to qualify for Tokyo Olympics
Sajan Prakash has become the first Indian swimmer to qualify for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.

• Sajan achieved the feat as he clocked 1 minute 56.38 seconds in the men’s 200m butterfly at the Sette Colli Trophy in Rome.
• The qualification cut-off was 1 minute  56.48 seconds.

Archery World Cup in Paris: Abhishek Verma wins compound men’s individual gold
Abhishek Verma beat American Kris Schaff via shoot-off in a nerve-wracking final to win the compound men’s individual title in the Archery World Cup Stage-3 in Paris. With this, hr become the first Indian man to win two gold medals in the men’s compound individual event at Archery World Cups.

• Verma shot a 10 against Schaff’s nine in the shoot-off after the two archers were tied 148-148 in the gold medal match.
• This was Verma’s second World Cup individual gold medal. He won the first one in Wroclaw, Poland, in 2015.

Shooting World Cup in Osijek, Croatia: Manu Bhaker & Saurabh Chaudhary win silver in mixed air pistol team event
India’s star shooters Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary won a silver medal at the ISSF World Cup in Osijek, Croatia o in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Event.

• The Indian pair lost the gold medal match to Russia’s Vitalina Batsarashkina and Artem Chernousov 12-16.
• Meanwhile, India’s Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Deswal lost their bronze medal match in the Mixed Team Air Pistol event to Iran’s Golnoush Sebghatollahi and Javad Foroughi 7-17 and finished outside the podium.

APPOINTMENTS

Vigilance Commissioner Suresh N Patel to act as CVC
Vigilance Commissioner Suresh N. Patel will act as the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) in the Central Vigilance Commission with effect from the date of occurrence of vacancy that is June 24, 2021, until the appointment of the central vigilance commissioner , according to a Personnel Ministry notification.

• The appointment was necessitated after Sanjay Kothari completed his term as the chief of the probity watchdog on June 23.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY 

DRDO successfully test fires enhanced Pinaka Rockets
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) said it has successfully test-fired enhanced range versions of indigenously-developed Pinaka rockets and 122mm Caliber rockets from a Multi-Barrel Rocket Launcher (MBRLp) at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur off the coast of Odisha.

• Altogether 25 Enhanced Pinaka Rockets were test fired in quick succession against targets at different ranges.
• The ministry of defence in a statement that the enhanced range version of the Pinaka Rocket System can destroy targets at distances up to 45km.

IIT Delhi develops Rapid Antigen Test Kit for COVID-19
Minister of State for Education, Shri Sanjay Dhotre, launched a Rapid Antigen Test kit for COVID-19. It was developed by IIT Delhi researchers led by Dr. Harpal Singh. 

• kit has been developed entirely using internal resources at IIT Delhi. It has been named as SENSIT Rapid COVID-19 Ag Testing Kit. It exhibits 86% Sensitivity & 100% Specificity.
• It is a colloidal gold enhanced double antibody which is sandwich immunoassay to perform qualitative determination of coronavirus antigen in human nasal swabs, throat swabs and deep sputum sample.

Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launches ‘itat e-dwar’, an e-filing portal of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launched the e-filing portal of the Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT), saying the initiative should be seen as a larger narrative of transformation the country is undergoing through the digital medium.

• The ‘ITAT e-dwar’ portal will enhance accessibility, accountability and transparency in day to day working of the ITAT, tribunal president Justice P P Bhatt said.

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