Daily Current Affairs 4th June, 2020

Daily Current Affairs 4 June 2020 for Banking/Insurance/SSC and other related exams.

NATIONAL NEWS

Govt launches SWADES to conduct skill mapping of citizens returning under VBM
Union Government has launched a new initiative SWADES- Skilled Workers Arrival Database for Employment Support to conduct a skill mapping exercise of the returning citizens under the Vande Bharat Mission.

• This is a joint initiative of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Civil Aviation Ministry and External Affairs Ministry.
• SWADES aims to create a database of qualified citizens based on their skillsets and experience to tap into and fulfil demand of Indian and foreign companies.

Telangana CM inaugurates Kondapochamma Sagar project
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao has inaugurated the 15 TMC Kondapochamma Sagar reservoir by switching on pumps at the Markook pump house under Gajwel Assembly segment in a simple but solemn ceremony graced by Sri Tridandi Chinna Jeeyar Swami.

• A pump house in Siddipet district which will lift Godavari water to a reservoir which is at a height of 618 meters from the source—Godavari river. The water will flow from the reservoir through gravity to surrounding districts of Medak, Siddipet, Sangareddy, Yadadri-Bhongir and Medchal Malkajgiri which did not have any irrigation facilities till now

 Kerala becomes 1st state to provide free Internet for the Poor
After declaring the Internet as the fundamental right of every citizen, Kerela is now all set to roll out free high-speed broadband Internet for all the poor in the state.

• Rs 1500 crore Kerala Fibre Optic Network (K-FON) project will kickstart from December in Kerala.

BANKING & FINANCE

DBS Bank partners with TCIL for real time payments to truck drivers
DBS Bank has partnered with Transport Corporation of India Limited (TCIL) to facilitate real time payments for truck drivers.

• With this solution, TCIL truck drivers receive an instant credit into their bank account, which they can then swipe at terminals or withdraw cash using ATMs.
• The large volumes of transactions, and round-the-clock nature of the operations, it proposed setting up a UPI-based real-time payments solution which is available 24x7x365. 

Sebi extends power of attorney norms implementation date to August 1
Markets regulator Sebi has extended to August 1, 2020 the date for implementing norms pertaining to power of attorney given by clients to trading members or clearing members.

• The regulator had in February 2020 specified guidelines with regard to margin obligations to be given by way of pledge and re-pledge in the depository system. The provisions of the circular were to come into effect from June 1, 2020

BUSINESS & ECONOMY

Indian economy to contract 10% this fiscal: Subhash Chandra Garg
Former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said the Indian economy will shrink by 10 per cent or Rs 20 lakh crore in the ongoing fiscal, the first contraction in over 40 years, due to a “faulty” COVID lockdown.

• Garg also said that the government’s Rs 21 lakh crore stimulus package is actually of only Rs 1.4-1.5 lakh crore or about 0.7 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

India GDP may contract by 2 per cent in FY21, says BoA Securities
The extension of the lockdown by the government will have a deep impact on economic activity, a foreign brokerage said, sharply cutting India’s GDP forecast for this financial year to a contraction of 2 per cent.

• The estimate has been arrived at with the assumption that the lockdown will extend till mid-July and a restart of the economy will get stretched to August, analysts at Bank of America Securities said.
•  It can be noted that the RBI also expects the economy to contract in FY21 (2020-2021), but has not given a level to it. Some analysts have pegged the contraction as high as 5 per cent.
• The central government has been reopening parts of the economy, while continuing with the lockdown in COVID-19-affected parts of the country, which contribute over 60 per cent of the GDP

Facebook signs licensing deal with music label Saregama
Saregama announced a global deal with Facebook, to license its music for video and other social experiences across Facebook and Instagram.

• This partnership will allow users to choose from a wide variety of music to add to their social experiences such as videos, stories via music stickers and other creative content. People will also be able to add songs to their Facebook profile.

Microsoft launches programme for agritech start-ups
Microsoft has announced the launch of a programme for agritech start-ups in India that are committed to driving transformation in agriculture.

• The Microsoft for Agritech Startups programme is designed to help start-ups build industry-specific solutions, scale and grow with access to deep technology, business and marketing resources.
• Start-ups can also get access to Azure FarmBeats, which can help them focus on core value-adds instead of the undifferentiated heavy lifting of data engineering.

APPOINTMENTS

Uday Kotak appointed as CII President; to replace Vikram Kirloskar
Veteran banker Uday Kotak has been appointed as the new President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2020-21.

• Uday, who was also the President-Designate of CII for the last two years, will replace Vikram Kirloskar, Chairman and Managing Director of Kirloskar Systems Ltd, and Vice Chairman of Toyota Kirloskar Motor.
• Besides, T V Narendran, CEO and Managing Director of Tata Steel, has been appointed as the President Designate of CII for 2020-21. Among others, Sanjiv Bajaj, Chairman and Managing Director of Bajaj Finserv, has been named as the Vice President of the apex industry body.

V N Datt takes over as C&MD, National Fertilizers Limited
Shri Virendra Nath Datt, Director (Marketing), National Fertilizers Limited -NFL has taken over the additional charge of Chairman & Managing Director of the Company.

• Shri Datt is associated with Company as Director (Marketing) since October 2018.
• Prior to joining NFL, he was Executive Director in GAIL (India) Limited where he handled all India marketing operations of the company in addition to Corporate Strategy, Planning and Advocacy. He was also a Director on the Board of Mahanagar Gas Ltd., Mumbai.

BAFTA Appoints Krishnendu Majumdar as Chairman
BAFTA has appointed Krishnendu Majumdar, the producer behind the International Emmy-winning series Hoff The Record, as its new chair.

• The co-founder of Me + You Productions has been deputy chair for the past year and becomes the first person of color to chair the organization, replacing Dame Pippa Harris.
• Majumdar will serve a three-year tenure as chair, having been involved with BAFTA for the past 14 years, serving in a number of roles, including chair of the television committee.

Twitter appoints ex-Google CFO as new board chairman
Twitter appointed former Google chief financial officer Patrick Pichette as the company’s new chairman of the board.

• Pichette is taking over the role from Omid Kordestani, who had served as Twitter’s board chairman since October 2015
• Pichette takes over the role after joining Twitter’s board of directors in 2017.He previously served as Google’s CFO from 2008 until 2015.

AWARDS

Delhi-based NGO wins WHO award
The World Health Organization (WHO) has conferred the World No Tobacco Day Award 2020 to the Socio-Economic and Educational Development Society (SEEDS), an NGO, for its efforts to ban pan masala, gutkha, e-cigarettes and hookah in Bihar and Jharkhand.

• On the occasion of World No Tobacco Day on May 31, the WHO selects organisations and individuals from its six regions every year for their exceptional contribution in the field of tobacco control. The SEEDS is among the three awardees selected from the South-East Asia Region.

Indian writer Kritika Pandey wins regional award for Asia in 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize
Kritika Pandey, a writer from Ranchi, was announced as the regional winner for Asia in the 2020 Commonwealth Short Story Prize.

•  The 29-year-old writer won for her story The Great Indian Tee and Snakes, which is about two young people trying to navigate the idea of love in an era of hatred and prejudice.
•  The story about a Hindu girl falling in love with a Muslim man had made it to the shortlist for the Asian region.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Delhi Government Launches ‘Delhi Corona’ App for Information on Vacant Hospital Beds, Ventilators
The Delhi government launched a dedicated mobile app Delhi Corona to help people find the status of total hospital beds and ventilators in the union territory.

• The Delhi Corona, the app is initially available for download on Android devices. It is designed to make it easy to find healthcare facilities for COVID-19 treatment.

New type of Trojan asteroid discovered near Jupiter has an orbit like an asteroid but the tail of a comet
A rare kind of space object, which is something between an asteroid and a comet, has been discovered by astronomers. It has been called an active asteroid.

• The newly discovered asteroid named 2019 LD2 has an orbit like an asteroid but the tail of a comet. While not entirely unknown, what makes 2019 LD2 special is that it shares Jupiter’s orbit in an asteroid swarm known as the Jupiter Trojans
• This is the first Jupiter Trojan astronomers have ever seen spewing out gas as a comet would.

ENVIRONMENT

Millipede from Scotland is world’s oldest-known land animal: Research
A fossilized millipede-like creature discovered in Scotland may represent the oldest-known land animal, a humble pioneer of terrestrial living 425 million years ago that helped pave the way for the throngs that would eventually inhabit Earth’s dry parts.

• Researchers said the fossil of the Silurian Period creature, called Kampecaris obanensis and unearthed on the island of Kerrera in the Scottish Inner Hebrides, inhabited a lakeside environment and likely ate decomposing plants.
•  Fossils of the oldest-known plant with a stem, called Cooksonia, were found in the same ancient lake region as Kampecaris

OBITUARIES

Wes Unseld, NBA Hall of Famer, passes away
National Basketball Association (NBA) Hall of Famer Wes Unseld passed away.

•  He was one of the greatest American professional basketball player. He led his franchise ‘Washington Wizards’ ( then Baltimore Bullets) to the NBA Championship in 1978.
• He played for Washington Wizards throughout his entire 13-season playing career and also worked for as a coach and general manager.
• He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1988.

IMPORTANT DAYS

World Bicycle Day
June 3 is celebrated as International World Bicycle Day. The day was marked by the United Nations General Assembly in April 2018.

• It acknowledged the “uniqueness, longevity and versatility of the which has been in use for two centuries, and that it is a simple, affordable, reliable, clean and environmentally fit sustainable means of transportation, fostering environmental stewardship and health.

Click here to read Daily Current Affairs