CURRENT AFFAIRS – SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
CURRENT AFFAIRS – SEPTEMBER 12, 2017
NATIONAL
IIT-Delhi, IIT-Bombay, IISc among world’s top 200 universities:
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay, IIT-Delhi and Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, have found a place in the top 200 universities in the latest edition of the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings.
Additional information on Ranking:
India boasts of three of the top 200 universities in the world for the first time as IIT-Bombay grabbed the 179th rank this time from 219th last year, IIT-Delhi rose to 172nd from the 185th rank and IISc slipped by 38 places to 190.
IIT-Delhi replaced IISc as the best ranked Indian institution in the world for the first time. However, IISc was ranked the sixth best institution in the world in terms of QS’s ‘citations per faculty’ metric.
Additional information on Quacquarelli Symonds:
Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) is a British company specialising in education and study abroad. QS World University Rankings is an annual publication of university rankings by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS).
125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda Celebrated:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has address a students’ convention to mark the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda’s Chicago address and BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya’s centenary celebrations.
The theme of the convention is ‘Young India, New India’.
INTERNATIONAL
India steps up development partnership with Afghanistan:
India promised to extend development assistance to nearly every province in Afghanistan through projects worth over $300 million, three weeks after US President Donald Trump demanded that New Delhi do more for the economic progress of the war-torn nation.
Foreign minister Sushma Swaraj and her Afghan counterpart Salahuddin Rabbani unveiled a “New Development Partnership” under which India would implement 116 socio-economic projects across 31 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces.
Additional information on development Partnership:
The initiatives, described as “high-impact” development projects, will span sectors like education, health, agriculture, irrigation, drinking water, renewable energy, flood control, micro-hydropower, sports infrastructure and administrative infrastructure, the foreign ministers said.
India committed to building the Shahtoot dam, setting up drinking water projects for Kabul and Charikar city, constructing low-cost houses for returning Afghan refugees in Nangarhar, developing roads in Bamyan province, and constructing a polyclinic in Mazar-e-Sharif.
Afghanistan
- Currency: Afghan afghani
- Capital: Kabul
BANKING & BUSINESS
Paytm Payments Bank Partners with NPCI for RuPay Digital Card:
Paytm Payments Bank (PPB) has partnered with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch a RuPay-powered digital debit card.
Additional information on PPB:
- With the PPB Digital debit card, customers will now be able to transact at all merchants who accept credit and debit cards.
- The RuPay-powered digital debit card will be issued to all customers who have opened their bank accounts with PPB.
- Existing Paytm users need to complete a KYC process to become an account holder with PPB. Following this, they will be issued a free digital RuPay card.
- This debit card will come with a free insurance cover of up to Rs 2 lakh in the case of death or permanent total disability.
- Major online platforms like Ola, Flipkart and Amazon do not allow users to pay for transactions using Paytm wallets currently. With these digital debit cards, they will now be able to make transactions on these platforms as well.
- As a payments bank, PPB can take a demand deposit of up to Rs 1 lakh per customer, but it cannot undertake lending activities.
Additional information on NPCI:
National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an umbrella organization for all retail payments system in India. It was set up with the guidance and support of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks’ Association (IBA).
The RBI, after setting up the Board for Regulation and Supervision of Payment and Settlement Systems (BPSS) in 2005, released a vision document incorporating a proposal to set up an umbrella institution for all the RETAIL PAYMENT SYSTEMS in the country. The core objective was to consolidate and integrate the multiple systems with varying service levels into nation-wide uniform and standard business process for all retail payment systems. The other objective was to facilitate an affordable payment mechanism to benefit the common man across the country and help financial inclusion.
It was incorporated as a Section 25 company under Companies Act 1956 (now Section 8 of Companies Act 2013) and is aimed to operate for the benefit of all the member banks and their customers. The authorized capital was pegged at Rs 300 crore and paid up capital was Rs 100 crore. The aim is to create infrastructure of large dimension and operate on high volumes resulting in payment services at a fraction of the present cost structure.
NPCI has ten promoter banks namely, State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Canara Bank, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, Bank of India, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Citibank and HSBC.
Paytm
- Founder: Vijay Shekhar Sharma
- Parent organization: One97 Communications
- Headquarters: Noida
NPCI
- Headquarters: Mumbai
- Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer: A P Hota
India rise on Ease of Business Index:
The World Bank had shared its feedback, stating that it had accepted many of the reforms claimed by the government. India’s rank had improved by just one spot to 130 among 190 countries.
Additional information on Ranking:
India had showed one of its poorest performances on the parameter of ‘Paying Taxes’ last time, ranking 172 among the countries surveyed for the report. That, along with an equally lower position in ‘Enforcing Contracts’, landed India at the 130th spot, falling behind countries such as Mexico (38), Russia (51) and Pakistan (138). The ranking considers business environment in Delhi and Mumbai.
Additional information on Ease of doing business index:
The ease of doing business index is an index created by the World Bank Group. Higher rankings (a low numerical value) indicate better, usually simpler, regulations for businesses and stronger protections of property rights.
China said to ban trading of Bitcoin on local exchanges:
China plans to ban trading of Bitcoin and other virtual currencies on domestic exchanges, dealing another blow to the $150 billion crypto currency market after the country outlawed initial coin offerings.
China
- Currency: Renminbi
- Capital: Beijing
- Prime minister: Li Keqiang
- President: Xi Jinping
APPOINTMENTS
Nirmala, Goyal in CCPA; Along With Pradhan Included as Permanent Members of CCEA:
The government has included defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman, railway minister Piyush Goyal in the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs (CCPA), reaffirming their elevation in the Union Cabinet.
Sitharaman and Goyal, along with petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan, have also been included as permanent members of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
Halimah Yacob set to be Singapore’s first female president:
Madam Halimah Yacob was issued a Certificate of Eligibility by the Presidential Elections Committee.
The 63-year-old was the only presidential hopeful of three to receive the certificate, meaning the presidential election reserved for candidates from the Malay community is headed for a walkover.
The former unionist and Speaker of Parliament is set to be Singapore’s first female president.
Singapore
- Capital: Singapore
- Currency: Dollar
AWARDS
Prakash Padukone to receive BAI’s maiden lifetime achievement award:
Badminton great Prakash Padukone will be conferred with the first Lifetime Achievement Award instituted by the Badminton Association of India (BAI) for his rich contribution to the sport.
The award will carry a citation and a cash award of Rs 10 lakh.
BAI President: Himanta Biswa Sarma
SPORTS
US Open final 2017: Rafael Nadal wins 16th grand slam Tilte
Rafael Nadal raced to a third US Open title and 16th Grand Slam crown with a rout of South African giant Kevin Anderson.
USA
- President of the United States: Donald Trump
- Currency: United States Dollar
- Capital: Washington, D.C.
Martina Hingis and Chan Yung-Jan clinched US Open Women’s doubles:
Martina Hingis captured her 25th career Grand Slam crown, partnering with Taiwan’s Chan Yung-Jan to win the US Open women’s doubles title.
The Swiss star, won her 13th Grand Slam women’s doubles title as she and Chan beat Czechs Lucie Hradecka and Katerina Siniakova.
Priyanka Panwar, India’s relay star, gets eight-year doping ban:
Priyanka Panwar, part of the 4×400 metre relay team which won gold at the 2014 Incheon Asian, has been banned for eight years — the sanction period for an athlete committing a second doping offence.
