Weekly CA Quiz: April 2020 3rd week

Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman participated in the virtual session of the 2nd G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors (FMCBG) meeting under the Saudi Arabian Presidency, to discuss the global economic outlook amid evolving COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

 Amid projection of sharp contraction in the global economy, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) cut India’s GDP (Gross Domestic Products) growth rate to 1.9 per cent in fiscal year 2020-21 starting April 1. However, it expects economy to bounce back strongly in fiscal 2021-22.

 As businesses struggle to shift from the traditional to the digital space given the current pandemic crisis, Google has released a new beta tool that lets you create short YouTube videos.

 CARE Ratings has appointed Ajay Mahajan as the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer (KMP) for a period of 5 years commencing from 15 April 2020 up to 14 April 2025 (both days inclusive) subject to approval of members of the Company.

The Aditya Birla group’s flagship company Hindalco completed the buyout of Aleris Corp by its wholly owned subsidiary Novelis Inc at an enterprise value of $2.8 billion (Rs 21,295 crores).

Veteran actor Ranjit Chowdhry died in the US. He was 64. Son of actress Pearl Padamsee, Ranjit had worked in films, theatre and television.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel inaugurated the online delivery website ‘Cghaat’ to provide home delivery of fruits and vegetables during the extended lockdown phase.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) reduced the reverse repo rate by 25 basis points from four per cent to 3.75 per cent in a bid to inject liquidity in financial markets.

To ensure adequate liquidity in the system, especially in the corporate bond market, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced the third targeted long-term repo operation (TLTRO) on April 7 for Rs 25,000 crore.

Asia is expected to witness zero per cent growth in 2020 due COVID-19 pandemic, its worst growth performance in almost 60 years, but still the world’s largest and most populous continent is likely to fare better than other regions in terms of activity said by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

According to the research report by SBI, India’s GDP growth may slide to 1.1 per cent in the current financial year, on account of the impact of coronavirus outbreak on the economy.

Social media behemoth Facebook and Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Limited are reportedly working together to develop a multi functional super-app.

The mascot for the 4th Asian Para Games scheduled to be held here from October 9 in 2022 was unveiled.

 Five-time world chess champion Viswanathan Anand has joined WWF (World Wide Fund) India as its ambassador for environment education programme.

 International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) president Tamas Ajan resigned in the wake of allegations of corruption and doping violations.

Hemophilia Day is an international awareness day for hemophilia and other bleeding disorders. It is held annually on April 17, date of the birthday of Frank Schnabel, founder of the World Federation of Hemophilia.This year theme for Hemophilia Day is “Get + Involved”.

The Delhi government has asked officials to use the new ‘Assess Koro Na’ app for door-to-door survey in COVID-19 containment zones to speed up decision-making by analysing real-time data, removing a major obstacle in the efforts to contain the virus.

 The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has cancelled the licence of The Mapusa Urban Cooperative Bank (MUCB) as it does not have adequate capital and earning prospects virtually stopping the banking operations of the second largest cooperative bank in the State.

Amid the economic uncertainty due to coronavirus, a “fund of funds” would be set up for export-oriented Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) soon announced by Union minister Nitin Gadkari.

 S&P Global Ratings on Friday slashed India growth forecast for the current fiscal to 1.8 per cent, from 3.5 per cent estimated earlier, on account of the lockdown to contain Covid-19 pandemic.

Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das said the country’s foreign exchange reserves have risen by nearly USD 2 billion to USD 476.5 billion as of April 10.

 TVS Motor Company announced the acquisition of the United Kingdom’s most iconic sporting motorcycle ‘Norton’ in an all-cash deal, for £16 million, by acquiring certain assets of Norton Motorcycles (UK) (in administration), through one of TVS Motor’s overseas arms.

Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Agriculture Minister launched transport aggregator mobile application known as Kisan Rath that will bring together 5 lakh trucks as well as 20,000 tractors on mobile platform for transporting agriculture produce to markets from farm gate.

Shuttling to the Top: The Story of P.V. Sindhu, written by V. Krishnaswamy, that narrates the journey of India’s first and only woman silver medal-winning athlete at the Olympic Games.

Covid FYI” is a one-stop digital directory containing information of all COVID-19 related services and helplines released by official sources.

Centre has released 7,300 crore rupees to the States and Union Territories under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) to liquidate pending dues of last financial year but also the wage dues for the first fortnight of 2020-21.

Small finance bank, Equitas Small Finance Bank, has said that new customers can ‘self-onboard’ to open a savings account or invest in a fixed deposit with no physical contact or branch visits during the on-going coronavirus lockdown.

ICICI Bank has announced that it has integrated its AI powered multi-channel chatbot, ‘iPal’, with the world’s two most popular voice assistant apps–Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant– to enable its retail banking customers to undertake an array of banking services with just a simple voice command.

The government has launched a special digital platform iGOT for training and capacity building of healthcare staff including doctors, nurses, paramedics, hygiene workers and technicians, stepping up efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

Union Government has created an online data pool on https://covidwarriors.gov.in of doctors including AYUSH doctors, nurses and other health care professionals, volunteers from NYKs, NCC NSS, PMGKVY, ex Servicemen etc for use by the ground level administration at state, district or municipal levels.

Veteran journalist Samir Goswami, a much-liked figure in Kolkata sports journalism fraternity, breathed his last after suffering from cardiac arrest.He was 65.

 Uttar Pradesh has become the first state in the country to geotag its 7,368 community kitchens and community shelters across 75 districts which produce 12 lakh food packets a day.

The government has formed a high-level task force for vaccine and drug testing for coronavirus disease (Covid-19), as the death toll from the pandemic increased to 519 and the cases reached 16,116.

Arunachal Chief Minister Pema Khandu inaugurated a revamped “strategic bridge” over Subansiri river in Upper Subansiri district, which will help supply of essential items to people of remote villages and army personnel deployed along the India-China border, amid the ongoing lockdown.

Himachal Pradesh government has rolled out “e-sanjeevani-opd” for free online medical consultation to sick people.

1. New Development Bank approved financial assistance of about five billion dollars to BRICS countries including Emergency Assistance of one billion dollar to India to combat COVID-19 pandemic.

RBI reduced the general category foreign portfolio investors’ (FPI) investment limit in central government securities to Rs 2.34 lakh crore for the entire fiscal year 2021 as compared to the existing limit of Rs 2.46 lakh crore. As a result, the limits have been brought down by almost $1.5 billion to just above $31 billion.

The Reserve Bank of India has given its approval for the re-appointment of N Kamakodi as MD & CEO of City Union Bank (CUB) for three years with effect from May 1, 2020.

Veteran author Sudha Murty’s first book in an audio format titled “How the Onion Got Its Layers” is released.

The Odisha government along with UNICEF released a calendar-based fun-filled list of activities for children to keep over 16 lakh children engaged in a meaningful way during the lockdown.

 Homeline, an initiative for doorstep delivery of essentials across Bengaluru city limits during the lockdown and claimed to be India’s first integrated voice and message platform to provide citizens services, was launched by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa .

India has dropped two places on a global press freedom index to be ranked 142nd out of 180 countries in the annual Reporters Without Borders analysis.

 According to a survey by Gartner, Inc, sixty-seven per cent of digital workers in India said emerging technologies such as machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) are increasing their effectiveness at work.

Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPBL) has partnered with Mastercard for the issuance of virtual and physical debit cards.

Facebook announced an investment of USD 5.7 billion (Rs 43,574 crore) to buy a 10 per cent stake in the firm that houses billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s telecom arm Jio as the social media giant looks to expand presence in its largest market in terms of subscriber base.

To track home quarantine people on a real-time basis, Pune Municipal Corporation has developed a mobile application named ‘Saiyam’. The mobile application has GPS tracking so that whenever quarantined citizens leave their homes, city administration gets alerted and the local ward or the local police station gets informed, who then visit the family.

April 22nd, 2020, marks the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the annual celebration of the environmental movement.It was celebrated for the first time in 1970.Earth Day is celebrated around the world to demonstrate support for environmental protection.The theme for Earth Day 2020 is climate action.