CURRENT AFFAIRS FOR IBPS RRB & PO 19 TH AUGUST 2017

NATIONAL

Govt doubles child care allowance for women with disabilities:

Centre has doubled the child care allowance for women employees with disabilities to three thousand rupees per month.

At present, the allowance of 1,500 rupees per month is given to Divyang female employees for taking care of their newborn child. An order issued by Department of Personnel and Training said, the allowance will be payable from the time of the child’s birth till the child is two years old.  It will be payable for a maximum of two eldest surviving children.

The DoPT said the above limit will be automatically go up by 25 per cent every time the Dearness Allowance on the revised pay structure rises by 50 per cent. The decision to hike the allowance is based on the recommendations of seventh central pay commission.

Smriti Irani to inaugurate Orient Craft Textile facility in Jharkhand

Union Minister for Textile and Information & Broadcasting, Smriti Irani will arrive in Ranchi to inaugurate Orient Craft Textile facility at Irba near Ranchi in Jharkhand. It is being organised under special make in Jharkhand drive, called “Momentum Jharkhand”.

Jharkhand

• Capital: Ranchi
• Chief Minister: Raghubar Das
• Governor: Draupadi Murmu

CEOs Conference at New Delhi on 18th and 19th August, 2017-regarding:

A two day Chief Electoral Officers’ Conference of all States and Union Territories commenced in New Delhi. It was inaugurated by Shri. A.K. Joti, Chief Election Commissioner of India and Shri. O.P. Rawat, Election Commissioner of India.

He stressed on the need of providing E-services to stakeholders and emphasised the requirement to develop E-Payment gateways for various election services of Election commission of India.

The need for extensive training programmes on VVPAT (Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail) as ECI has decided to conduct all future elections using VVPAT along with EVMs (Electronic Voting Machines). CEC also stated that SVEEP (Systematic Voter Education and Electoral participation) be developed as core area of election management.

PM meets crew of Navika Sagar Parikrama:

Navika Sagar Parikrama is a project wherein a team of six women officers of the Indian Navy would circumnavigate the globe on an Indian-built sail boat INSV Tarini.

This is the first ever Indian circumnavigation of the globe by an all-women crew. The project is scheduled to commence in early Sep 17^th from Goa, and expect to return to Goa in March 2018, after completing the circumnavigation. INSV Tarini is the sister vessel of INSV Mhadei. The project is considered essential towards promoting Ocean Sailing activities in the Navy while depicting Government of India’s thrust for ‘Nari Shakti’.

The vessel will be skippered by Lt. Commander Vartika Joshi, and the crew comprises Lt. Commanders Pratibha Jamwal, P Swathi, and Lieutenants S Vijaya Devi, B Aishwarya and Payal Gupta.

INTERNATIONAL

US, Japan vow to boost defence cooperation with India, S Korea, Australia:

The US and Japan have agreed to advance their multilateral security and defence cooperation with countries like India, South Korea and Australia, amidst China’s growing assertiveness in the Asia Pacific region.

Both of them will cooperate to advance trilateral and multilateral security and defence cooperation with other partners in the region, notably the Republic of Korea, Australia, India and other south east Asian countries. It is jointly addressed by Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono and defence minister Itsunori Onodera with US secretary of state Rex Tillerson.

USA

• President of the United States: Donald Trump
• Currency: United States Dollar
• Capital: Washington, D.C.

Five Indian-origin persons in Fortune’s ’40 Under 40′ list:

Five Indian-origin persons have featured in Fortune’s annual list of 40 young and influential people (40 under 40) in the field of business inspiring others with their work.

The list has been topped by 39-year-old French President Emmanuel Macron. Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, 38, whose father was born in India, has been ranked fifth on the list.

The Indian-origin 26-year-old Divya Nag who oversees Apple’s ambitious ResearchKit and CareKit programmes has been ranked 27^th. Rishi Shah, 31, and Shradha Agarwal, 32, who helm more than 10-year-old health-tech firm Outcome Health have been ranked 38th on the list. Leila Janah (31) CEO and founder of non-profit Samasource has been ranked 40th on the list.

BANKING & BUSINESS

RBI to shortly issue new Rs 50 currency note:

RBI will shortly issue new banknotes of Rs 50 denomination in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series.
A RBI press release has informed that the base colour of the new notes will be fluorescent blue and its dimension will be 66 mm x 135 mm.

The new notes will bear the picture of the iconic stone chariot at Hampi, Karnataka on the reverse, depicting the country’s cultural heritage along with the Swachh Bharat logo, year of printing, numeral 50 in devnagiri and the language panel.

The banknote will bear the signature of RBI Governor Dr. Urjit R. Patel on the front side along with the guarantee and promise clause and the RBI emblem.

It will have Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait at the Centre and a see through register with enominational numeral 50. Micro letters ‘RBI’, ‘BHARAT’, ‘INDIA’ and ‘50’ and Ashoka Pillar emblem on the right will also feature on the front side.

The security thread will have inscriptions ‘BHARAT’ and RBI. The number panel will have numerals growing from small to big on the top left side and bottom right side. RBI has clarified that all banknotes in 50 rupee denomination issued in the earlier series will continue to be legal tender.

ICICI Bank cuts savings account interest rate by 0.5 pct:

After second largest private sector lender in the country, HDFC Bank cuts its savings bank interest rate, another private sector lender, this time ICICI Bank has cut its rate too. The bank announced that it has slashed its interest rate by 50 basis points to 3.5 per cent on deposits below Rs 50 lakh. However, it has also indicated that the rate on deposits of Rs 50 lakh and above will remain unchanged at 4 per cent. The interest rates that have been revised will come into effect from August 19 itself.

ICICI

• Headquarters: Mumbai
• Chairman: Chandha kochhar

APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNS

Lanka appoints first Tamil Navy chief after four decades:

Rear Admiral Travis Sinniah was appointed as the chief of Sri Lankas naval forces, making him the first from the minority Tamil community to head the Navy since the brutal civil war erupted in the country 45 years ago.

Sinniah, who played a decisive role in the destruction of the LTTE warships in deep sea during the height of the civil war, was appointed as the Navy chief by President Maithripala Sirisena. Sinniah succeeds Vice Admiral Ravi Wijegunaratne who has retired.

Srilanka

• Currency: Sri Lankan rupee
• Capitals: Colombo, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte
• Prime minister: Ranil Wickremesinghe

Putin appoints Nikolay Kudashev as Russia’s new ambassador to India:

Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed career diplomat Nikolay Kudashev as Russia’s new ambassador to India. The appointment of Kudashev comes nearly seven months after the death of Russia’s previous ambassador to India Alexander Kadakin.

Kudashev, a specialist in South East Asia, is currently the Deputy Director General Secretariat of the Ministry of foreign Affairs of Russia.

Russia

• Russian President: Vladimir Putin.
• Currency: Russian ruble
• Capital: Moscow

CBFC chief Joshi, Kukunoor part of IFFI steering committee:

The information and broadcasting ministry constituted a steering committee for the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) with film director Nagesh Kukunoor and lyricist Prasoon Joshi among its members. The IFFI is proposed to be held from November 20-28 in Goa.

The information and broadcasting ministry said the steering committee will have 13 members, including Jahnu Barua (convener), Piyush Pandey, creative director of Ogilvy & Mather (India), and film director and producer Shoojit Sarcar.The director of NFDC is also a member of the committee.

Karur Vysya Bank appoints P R Seshadri as managing director & chief executive officer:

Karur Vysya Bank Ltd has informed BSE that the Reserve Bank of India has accorded their approval for the appointment of Shri P R Seshadri as Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of the Bank for a period of three years from the date of his taking charge.

Steve Bannon steps down as Donald Trump’s chief strategist:

Stephen Bannon, the chief strategist of US President Donald Trump, steps down even as US administration is engulfed in a storm over latter’s remarks on Charlottesville violence.

Bannon, 63, who played a key role in the electoral victory of Trump last year, became the third high-profile White House official to have left the Trump administration in recent weeks.

SPORTS

Indian athletes win big at World Dwarf Games, bag 37 medals

As the Indian consulate in Toronto observed Independence Day on August 15, one group of participants at the celebrations stood tall – members of the Indian contingent that had just won a record haul of 37 medals at the World Dwarf Games in Canada.

The 21-strong team was called on stage to loud applause as India’s consul general to Toronto, Dinesh Bhatia, felicitated them and announced they had captured 37 medals at the international competition, including 15 gold medals.

The 7th edition of the World Dwarf Games was held over a week at the University of Guelph in Ontario province and featured nearly 400 athletes from 24 countries.

Canada

• Currency: Canadian dollar
• Capital: Ottawa

HISTORIC EVENTS OF THE DAY

TRIFED celebrates World Honey Bee Day:

To create awareness about Beekeeping and uses of its products including Honey, Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) is celebrating World Honey Bee Day (WHBD) on 19.08.2017 in the Country. TRIFED is an apex organisation at National Level and functioning under the administrative control of Ministry of Tribal Affairs.

World Photography Day: August 19^th

August 19^th is observed as World Photography Day, which aims to inspire photographers across the planet to share a single photo with a simple purpose: to share their world with the world. Information and Public Relations Department of Jharkhand has announced a Photography Contest on August 19 on the occasion of World Photography Day. The theme of the contest is Jharkhand: Land, People and Culture.

World Humanitarian Day: August 19^th

Civilians in conflict are not a target, top United Nations officials stressed at a special event marking World Humanitarian Day on August 19^th every year, which honours aid workers and pays homage to those killed in service, while also drawing attention to the millions of people today living in war zones.