Weekly CA Quiz: January 2nd week (8 Jan – 15 Jan)

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has agreed to provide Rs 1 billion to the Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) after its request that the country was facing a shortage of INR 100 denomination banknotes.

GAAR, which was originally to be implemented from April 1, 2014, will now come into effect from April 1, 2017 (Assessment Year 2018—19).

General Anti-Avoidance Rule (GAAR) was part of the 2012-13 Budget speech of the then Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to check tax evasion and avoidance.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the government will shortly launch the Pravasi Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PKVY) which is aimed at skilling Indians seeking employment abroad. The prime minister announced this at the 14th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention in Bengaluru.

He won by defeating Andy Murray

SBI Pension Funds is one of the three pension fund managers appointed by the regulator PFRDA to manage the pension corpus of employees enrolled under the National Pension System for government employees.

Country’s largest lender SBI has waived Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on debit card transactions for all small merchants with annual turnover of up to Rs 20 lakh for one year.

This robot is developed in India and named it Ira which means Intelligent Robotic Assistant and it will be used for smoother customer service, marketing, employee assistance and also process automation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the India International Exchange (INX), the first international exchange from India at International Financial Service Centre (IFSC), Gujarat International Finance Tech (GIFT) City, Gujarat, calling it as momentous for the financial sector.

Power Minister Piyush Goyal unveiled world’s largest street light replacement programme in South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) area. In this programme, two lakh LED lights will replace inefficient lamps.

Maharashtra government has launched India’s largest public WiFi service called ‘MumbaiWifi’.

In its bid to accelerate the digital transformation of Rajasthan, global networking giant Cisco announced a slew of initiatives, including video-enabled digital classrooms in women colleges in the state to cover 10,000 women students over the next one year.

Yes Bank has entered into a tie-up with Bajaj Electricals for vendor financing using blockchain solution, and announced to use the technology more aggressively as it saves over 70 per cent in cost.

Agut beat Russian 20-year-old Daniil Medvedev 6-3 and 6-4 to claim the first ATP tournament of the season.

Domestic mobile wallet platform MobiKwik has announced zero surcharge on all transactions at petrol pumps and LPG gas payments. The announcement of zero surcharge on all petrol pumps and LPG transactions will benefit consumers and will motivate them to continue using digital payments.

FreeCharge has partnered ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF), the world’s largest free literary festival, with a vision in line with the growth of digitisation and ensuring secured payments in the fastest and most effective way possible.

Railways has launched a new ticketing App, IRCTC Rail Connect, to facilitate booking of train tickets in a faster and easier way. Equipped with latest technology, the new App also makes possible booking of tatkal ticket, ladies quota, premium tatkal quota booking and current reservation. This app will replace the existing ‘IRCTC connect’ app.

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan was given an award by the US Embassy in appreciation for his invaluable contributions to the US-India partnership on tuberculosis.

Cristiano Ronaldo was named the world’s best player at the inaugural Best Fifa Football Awards in Zurich.

Claudio Ranieri has been named FIFA Coach of the Year for 2016 for Leicester City

Vishwa Hindi Divas (World Hindi Day) and Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (Overseas Indian Day) was celebrated in the Egypt’s capital Cairo on Jan 10, 2017 to make the language popular in the country.

Eminent jurist C.G. Weeramantry, who was the first Sri Lankan to be appointed to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, and acclaimed for his dissenting judgment on nuclear weapons, passed away.

He was a senior sports journalist.

The global economic growth is forecast to accelerate moderately to 2.7 per cent in 2017 after a post-crisis low of 2.3 per cent in 2016.

The World Bank has pared India’s growth forecast for FY17 to 7% from 7.6% estimated earlier, attributing it partly to demonetisation of high-value currency notes.

British lender Barclays became the first bank to have a national tie-up with the India Post which runs over 1,55,000 post offices across the country.

The tie-up with India Post allows Barclays to extend its services across the 1,55,000 post offices across the nook and cranny of the country.

Helped by HDFC Bank, five temples in Kanyakumari district in southern Tamil Nadu have introduced digital wallets and PoS to enable their devotees pay donations.

Oxigen Wallet’s Artificial Intelligent Chatbot launched in collaboration with Niki.ai

India announced a $100-million Line of Credit to Kenya for agricultural mechanisation after talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta during which they also decided to deepen economic cooperation, identifying expansion of bilateral trade as a “priority”.

Saudi Arabia has increased India’s annual Haj quota from 1.36 lakh to 1.70 lakh, biggest such expansion in last 29 years.

With a view to promote dairying and rural livelihoods in the State, Arunachal Pradesh has signed an MoU with National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) during the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2017.

With an aim to drive digital literacy among tribal entrepreneurs in Gujarat, Amazon India signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Gujarat Tribal Development Department (TDD) during the “Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit 2017″.

The Tamil Nadu government declared all districts of the state drought-hit following a deficit in the northeast monsoon last year. Chief Minister O Panneerselvam announced several schemes for farmers, including waiver in land tax. He confirmed 17 suicides of drought-affected farmers in the past two months and announced aid of Rs 3 lakh to each of the bereaved families.

Delhi Airport claimed it has become the first aerodrome in the world to adopt unique performance and benchmarking digital platform, Arc, which helps in tracking and monitoring building performance.

Norway has become the first country to cease FM radio broadcasting. The northern county of Nordland has stopped broadcasting using analogue frequencies yesterday as the Government plans to roll out digital-only radio over the course of the year.

Abbu Ammaz, from Kashmir, a class 2 student from Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri has won gold medal in Thai Boxing Championship at the national level.

Airtel Payments Bank is the first among several such niche banks to start operations, after the central bank handed over new permits to bring financial services within the reach of millions who still lack access to formal banking.

Asia will remain the fastest growing region of the world, but the spotlight will shift away from China to India and Indonesia, PwC’s global economy watch (GEW) said

The minimum pension has been increased to Rs 9,000 per person besides a two-fold hike in ex-gratia amount for central government employees.

21st National Youth Festival with the theme “Youth for Digital India” begins in Rohtak, Haryana. At the inaugural ceremony of the 4 day festival, the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi addressed the Youths from across country who have come to Rohtak to participate in the event through video conference.

World famous wax museum Madame Tussauds is set to debut in India in New Delhi in June, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan and American pop star Lady Gaga’s statues as some of the star attractions.

In a major boost to small and medium industries in the state, the Gujarat government has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Railways for manufacturing parts of the bullet train (high speed train) with a value of Rs. 67,000 crore.

INS Kalvari is the first scorpene submarine.

Khanderi, the second Scorpene class submarine was launched at the Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited in Mumbai in Jan 2017. It has superior stealth and the ability to launch a crippling attack with torpedoes as well as tube-launched anti-ship missiles whilst underwater or on surface.

Facebook announced a new initiative, called the “The Journalism Project” in an attempt to maintain closer ties with media houses and publishers. As part of the effort, the social networking giant will collaborate with news organisations on product development, help train journalists on how to use Facebook as a reporting tool and work on efforts to promote news literacy.

Citi India announced the launch of Voice Biometrics Authentication for its customer banking clients that will help it save 1 lakh customer hours annually. The new technology allows clients to use their voiceprints for authentication rather than having to remember multiple PINs or respond to questions used for verifying their identities.

Global unemployment is expected to rise by 3.4 million in 2017 despite a likely modest pick-up in economic growth at 3.4 per cent this year and 3.6 per cent in 2018, against a six-year low of 3.1 per cent in 2016, says a new report by the International Labour Organisation.

BSNL is the first among the Indian mobile operators to have taken this big step forward towards how mobile subscribers use Wi-Fi internationally.

Sarita, who is also an Asian Games bronze-medallist besides being a multiple-time Asian champion, will become the first ever female boxer from India to step into the world of professional boxing at the Khuman Lampak Sports Complex indoor arena.

India and Sri Lanka signed an MoU to construct 3000 rain water harvesting systems at a cost of 30 crore Sri Lankan Rupees in northern Jaffna District.

For the benefit of both domestic and international tourists, Tamil Nadu Tourism Department has launched a mobile app ‘pinakin’ with information on tourism in Tamil Nadu with audio facilities.

Gujarat won their first ever Ranji Trophy title beating Mumbai by five wickets in the final at the Holkar stadium in Indore.

Ecuador has taken over from Thailand as chair.

Border Security Force (BSF) launched operation ‘Sard Hawa’ at the western international border of Rajasthan. The purpose of the operation is to keep a hawk’s eye on the international border, where vigil has been beefed-up and officers have also been asked to be part of operation to motivate jawans.

In Madhya Pradesh Indore district witnessed inauguration of first of its kind scheme of the country. Digital Dakiya, which aims at encouraging cashless transactions.
“Digital Dakiya” or Digital Postman will visit different places to teach and encourage people about cashless transactions and its benefits.

The Dance Festival is conceptualised so as to bring the cultural diversities from across the world into limelight, by breaking cultural barriers.
Prasar Bharti hosted it in Hyderabad.

Sports Minister Vijay Goel inaugurated the Khelo India National-level competitions for various sports for Under-14 and Under-17 children in New Delhi.

Harshwardhan Zala, from Gujarat, signed a deal with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of Gujarat, to facilitate production of the drones that help detect and defuse land mines on war fields.
Zala said he started work on the prototype of the landmine-detecting drone in 2016 and created a business plan too.