Weekly CA Quiz: April 2021 1st week

India has slipped 28 places to rank 140th among 156 countries in the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report 2021, becoming the third-worst performer in South Asia.
For the 12th time, Iceland is the most gender-equal country in the world.

The government extended the ₹3-lakh-crore emergency credit line guarantee scheme by another three months till June 30 and also widened its scope to new sectors, including hospitality, travel and tourism.

Noted Marathi writer Dr Sharankumar Limbale will receive Saraswati Samman, 2020 for his book Sanatan.

Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal inaugurated “Anandam: The Center for Happiness” at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Jammu virtually.

ACI Worldwide released a new report that indicated more than 70.3 billion real-time payments transactions were processed globally in 2020, a surge of 41 per cent compared to the previous year. According to the report, India retained the top spot with 25.5 billion real-time payments transactions, followed by China with 15.7 bn transactions.
The report speculated that by 2024 the share of real-time payments volume in overall electronic transactions will exceed 50 per cent. This will further touch 71.7 per cent by 2025.

Leading private sector lenders ICICI Bank and Axis Bank have tied up with global e-commerce major Amazon and cards major Visa to launch a retail payments entity, which will be a rival to state-owned NPCI. ICICI Bank and Axis Bank will be co-leading the consortium with a 20 per cent stake each. Other partners, including Amazon, Billdesk, Pine Labs and Visa will be holding a stake of 15 per cent each.

India will infuse ₹14,500 crore ($2 billion) into four state-run banks to help strengthen capital buffers and potentially free some of the lenders from regulatory curbs. Central Bank of India, Indian Overseas Bank, Bank of India and UCO Bank will receive the funds through zero-coupon bonds

The Reserve Bank of India, RBI, extended the deadline to process recurring online transactions with additional factor of authentication, AFA, to 30th September of this year from the last date fixed for March 31.

The World Bank said, given the significant uncertainty amid Covid-19 effects on the economy, the real India GDP growth could be in the range from 7.5 percent to 12.5 percent during current fiscal.

Government has extended the last date for linking of Aadhaar number with PAN upto 30th June this year in view of the difficulties arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) and the AFC Women’s Asian Cup India 2022 Local Organising Committee (LOC) confirmed the D.Y. Patil Stadium in Navi Mumbai, Ahmedabad’s TransStadia and the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar will stage the continent’s premier women’s national team competition.

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu has inaugurated the state’s first formal indigenous language and knowledge system school in East Kameng district. The first-of-its-kind school called ‘Nyubu Nyvgam Yerko’ was inaugurated at Rang village near Seppa.

The Reserve bank of India lowered base rate by 15 basis points or by 0.15 percent to 7.81 per cent.

Ujjivan Small Finance Bank said that it has joined hands with nStore to digitise offline retailers and small businesses in the country. Under this partnership, the lender will offer a mobile application ‘nLincs’ to its current account holders who own local businesses.

Digital Transactions through UPI in the country crossed another milestone last month recording transaction value of 5 lakh 4 thousand crore rupees.

The prestigious 51st Dadasaheb Phalke Award will be honoured to superstar Rajinikanth for the year 2019, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar announced. Rajinikanth is the 12th South Indian to get this award.

The government of India has announced scholarships to 2000 descendants of the Liberation War fighters of Bangladesh under its new Muktijoddha Scholarship scheme. The scholarship carries an amount of 20,000 Taka for students of Higher Secondary and 50,000 Taka to Undergraduate category students

Rajasthan began the registration for an insurance scheme – Chiranjeevi Health Insurance Scheme – under which each family in the state can claim up to Rs five lakh every year for medical expenses. Rajasthan has become the first state in the country, where each family will get health insurance of Rs 5 lakh each year.

Indian Army will participate in Multinational Military Exercise namely SHANTIR OGROSHENA -2021 in Bangladesh. The nine days exercise will be held to commemorate the birth centenary of Bangladesh Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and mark glorious 50 years of liberation.
The theme of the exercise is Robust Peace Keeping Operations.

The Rajasthan government will provide funds to each district for work related to public utility asset creation as per the local needs from the Chief Minister’s Innovation Fund. In this state-funded scheme, each district will be allocated Rs one crore per year.

Mallika Srinivasan, Chairman and Managing Director of Tractors and Farm Equipment (TAFE) Limited has been appointed as the chairperson of the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB).
This is for the first time that a private sector specialist has been appointed as the head of the PESB.

Mukhmeet S Bhatia has assumed charge as Director General of Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC). Bhatia is an IAS officer of 1990 batch of Jharkhand cadre.

Centre will soon roll out a Unique Land Parcel Identification Number system in the country allotting distinct IDs for each land parcel.

ICICI Bank and digital payment wallet PhonePe have partnered for issuance of FASTag, which facilitates electronic payment of fee at toll plazas.

 The government extended the existing foreign trade policy (FTP) for six more months up to September 30 this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

India’s growth in the current fiscal could weaken to 12.2% from the previously forecast 13.5%if the second wave of Covid-19 infections worsen, according to Japanese brokerage Nomura.

The Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) extended the basic customs duty and integrated goods and service tax exemptions for export oriented units, by a year till March 31, 2022.

The 2023 men’s boxing World Championships will be held in Uzbekistan capital Tashkent, the International Boxing Association (AIBA) announced.

The Board of Britannia Industries has appointed former Reserve Bank Governor Urjit Patel as the company’s Additional Director in the category of Non-Executive and Independent Director.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC)’s Director (Finance) Subhash Kumar assumed additional charge as Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) upon the retirement of incumbent Shashi Shanker.

Andhra Pradesh Governor Biswa Bhusan Harichandan has been conferred the ‘Kalinga Ratna’ award for the year 2021.

India’s biggest floating solar power plant with a capacity of 100 MW will be set up at Ramagundam in Telangana.

 The Maharashtra government declared an area at Amboli in Western ghats in Sindhudurg district, where a rare freshwater fish species was discovered, as a biodiversity heritage site.

World Autism Awareness Day is observed on April 2, every year to makes people understand and accept people with autism, foster worldwide support, and inspire people. It is a day that spread kindness and autism awareness.This year, the theme is ‘Inclusion in the Workplace: Challenges and Opportunities in a Post-Pandemic World’.

International Children’s Book Day (ICBD)an annual celebration of the birthday of Danish author and poet, Hans Christian Andersen every 2nd day of April to inspire a love of reading and to call attention to children’s books.The theme of International Children’s Book Day 2021 is “The Music of Words.”

 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), in consultation with the Government, has decided that the limits for Ways and Means Advances (WMA) for the first half of the financial year 2021-22 (April 2021 to September 2021) will be ₹1.20 lakh crore.

In a major push towards deep technology and driving the country to become a digitally transformed nation, Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), NITI Aayog has launched AIM-PRIME(programme for Researchers on Innovations, Market-Readiness & Entrepreneurship), a programme to promote and support science-based deep-tech startups & ventures across India.

 Aniyan Midhun of Nattika won the gold at the South Asian Wushu Championship that concluded in Nepal. The 28-year-old youth represented the country in the 70-kg category in the championship.

 Eden Park in Auckland in New Zealand has been selected by FIFA to stage the opening match of the tournament on July 10, with Stadium Australia in Sydney chosen to host the final on August 20.

The government approved a commission under National Programme for Civil Services Capacity Building (NPCSCB), also known as ‘Mission Karmayogi’, to train civil servants at all levels. The Commission will comprise of a Chairperson and two Members.

 RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the monetary policy committee voted unanimously to leave the repo rate and reverse repo rate unchanged at 4 per cent and 3.3.5 per cent,respectively.

The Reserve Bank has said the average base rate that’s charged by NBFC-MFIs from borrowers for the next quarter will be 7.81 percent.

 The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has upgraded its growth projection for India to 12.5 per cent for the Financial Year 2021-22.

Despite a massive spike in the pandemic caseload, Swiss brokerage UBS sees no repeat of a nationwide/statewide lockdown and expects only a minimal economic impact of the second wave that may lead to a 20-30 bps reduction in GDP.

 Professor Suman Chakraborty has been selected for the 30th GD Birla Award for Scientific Research for his outstanding contribution to engineering science and its applications in developing technologies for affordable healthcare.

 new book titled ‘Manohar Parrikar: Brilliant Mind, Simple Life’ authored by Nitin Gokhalewas released. The book is published by Bloomsbury.

 Every year on April 7 is observed as World Health Day, to spread awareness among people regarding the importance of a healthy lifestyle.

The United Nations’ International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action is observed on April 4 each year.

The World Bank and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) have approved the loan for USD 300 million (about Rs 2,190 crore) canal-based drinking water projects in Punjab.

The World Bank Board of Executive Directors has approved a USD 32 million project to improve management capacity and quality of health services in Mizoram.

Payments aggregator BillDesk announced a partnership with global financial institution J.P. Morgan to offer online payments solutions to the bank’s corporate clients in India.

Digital payments major, PhonePe said it has crossed a billion transactions on Unified Payments Interface (UPI) infrastructure in March, making it the first player in the country to reach this milestone.

 The National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has appointed Poonam Gupta as its new director general, effective from July 1.

President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Justice N V Ramana as the 48th Chief Justice of India, accepting the recommendation made by the outgoing CJI SA Bobde. Justice Ramanawill have a term till August 26th next year.

Vietnam’s National Assembly confirmed Pham Minh Chinh, a career security official, as the southeast Asian country’s next Prime Minister at an official ceremony.

Former Gujarat DGP Shabir Hussein Shekhadam Khandwawala has taken over from Ajit Singhas the head of the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Unit.

In Tennis, 26th seed Hubert Hurkacz of Poland won the biggest title of his career beating 19-year-old Jannik Sinner of Italy in the Miami Open final.

Former Gujarat DGP Shabir Hussein Shekhadam Khandwawala has taken over from Ajit Singhas the head of the BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Unit.

 Indian Railways has announced that the West Central Railway zone has become the first fully electrified railway zone in the country.

 The labour ministry has set up expert committees to review the standards under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions (OSH&WC) Code, 2020.

TRIFED under Ministry of Tribal Affairs has launched “Sankalp se Siddhi” – Village and Digital Connect Drive.

Government has sanctioned more than 25 thousand 586 crore rupees to over 1 lakh 14 thousand 322 accounts under Stand-Up India Scheme in five years.

 India has contributed $3,00,000 to the United Nations agency for gender equality and women empowerment, a contribution lauded by the UN entity.