DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: JANUARY 10, 2019

Dear Aspirants,

Daily Current Affairs (January 10, 2019) like many other sections is inevitable and this also helps to score in the Banking awareness , Static GK and Financial Awareness sections. Remember, Banking Awareness and Static Awareness Questions are asked from the General Awareness section. This will also help you to ride your preparations for the forthcoming exams.

NATIONAL

Govt allows Iranian bank to open Mumbai branch:

• Nitin Gadkari has announced that the government has allowed an Iranian bank Pasargad Bank to open a branch in mumbai within the next three months. Alongside, India’s UCO Bank will open a branch in Iran.
• The move is aimed at circumventing US trade and investment sanctions as India builds a strategic port in the West Asian country.

UGC decides to set up CARE to refine and strengthen research publication :

• UGC decides to set up Consortium for Academic and Research Ethics (CARE) to refine and strengthen research publication.
• UGC has constituted a Committee under the Chairmanship of Prof. P. Balram, to review its quality mandate relating to promotion of Research and to review the existing M.Phil/ Ph.D Regulations.
• The good quality Research Journals in disciplines under Social Sciences, Humanities, Languages, Arts, Culture, Indian Knowledge Systems etc., will be maintained by CARE and referred to as ‘CARE Reference List of Quality Journals’.

PM Modi launches road, sewerage projects in Maharashtra :

• PM Modi, launched the four-laning of Solapur-Osmanabad section of NH-211, underground sewerage system and three sewage treatment plants.
• It was launched in road and underground sewerage system projects developed at an investment of Rs.1,100 crore.
• Mr. Modi also laid the foundation stone for a Rs.1,811 crore housing project of 30,000 units under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana.Mr. Modi commissioned the four-laned 98.717 km Solapur- Tuljapur-Osmanabad section on NH-211 (New NH-52).

STATIC :MAHARASHTRA

Capital:Mumbai

CM:Devandra Fadnavis

Governor:Vidyasagar Rao

Lok Sabha passes “The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill – 2019”:

• The Lok Sabha passed “The DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill, 2019” by voice vote after a brief discussion.
• The Bill has been formulated recognizing the need for regulation of the use and application of Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) technology, for establishing identity of missing persons, victims, offenders, under trials and unknown deceased persons.

“Web- Wonder Women” Campaign launched to recognize Indian origin female drivers-of- change:

• The Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India, has launched an online campaign, ‘#www: Web- WonderWomen’ to recognize the exceptional women who have been driving positive agenda of social change via social media.
• The partners of the campaign are: Breakthrough and Twitter India.

Indian Forest Service to be renamed as Indian Forest and Tribal Service: DoPT

• The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) proposed renaming of the Indian Forest Service as Indian Forest and Tribal Service.
• This was made after a directive from the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) suggested to do so.

Cabinet approves ST status to 6 Assam communities :

• Union Cabinet has approved Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to six communities of Assam.
• The communities that are proposed to be extended ST status include, Koch Rajbongshi, Tai Ahom, Chutiya, Matak, Moran and the tea tribes.
• The move came before the centre introduced the Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019 in Lok Sabha.this amendment bill will give a status to the various tribal people

UDAN-3 :Andaman to be first Island to operate seaplanes

• According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation, islands in Andaman will soon be connected by seaplanes that can land on or take-off from the water.
• under the Ude Desh ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme the government has approved flight operations on 13 water aerodrome routes in order to facilitate it.

IRCTC Partners With Bharti AXA General Insurance :

• IRCTC- Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation, the Railways’ subsidiary, will offer insurance of up to INR 50 lakh for free for air passengers who book their tickets through its portal. IRCTC has tied up with Bharti-Axa for the offer.
• IRCTC has tied up with Galileo, a computer reservation system, for powering the flight search engine.

INTERNATIONAL

UN office on drugs and crime (UNODC) released “Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2018” :

• UN office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released a latest Global Report on “Trafficking in Persons”, which reveals that the number of human trafficking victims around the world is on the rise while armed groups and terrorists are trafficking women and children to generate funds and recruit.
• While the average numbers of reported victims had fluctuated during the earlier years for which UNODC had collected data, the global trend has shown a steady increase since 2010.

First India-Central Asia Dialogue to be held in Uzbekistan:

• The first India-Central Asia Dialogue will be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on January 12 and 13.
• The Dialogue will be co-chaired by External Affairs Minister (EAM) Sushma Swaraj and the Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan, Abdulaziz Kamilov.
• The first India-Central Asia Dialogue aims at taking forward the bilateral relations which have strengthened following the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to all the five Central Asian nations – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan – in 2015 and the EAM’s tour across the region in August 2018.

BANKING & ECONOMY

Sri Lanka Central Bank gets $400 million from RBI under Saarc Swap facility :

• Sri Lanka Central Bank announced that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has agreed to provide $400 million under a swap arrangement to boost the island nation’s reserves.
• These are to be made available under the (SAARC) South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation SWAP facility.

SEBI constitutes Research Advisory Committee (RAC) :Headed by Sankar De

• In order to strengthen its research function and enhance its linkage to policy making, SEBI has constituted a Research Advisory Committee headed by Dr. Sankar De and comprising of prominent financial economists and market practitioners as members.
• According to SEBI, the committee would comprise prominent financial economists and market practitioners.Another key task of the committee will be to maintain databases relevant for capital market regulation research.

STATIC:SEBI

SEBI Chairman- Ajay Tyagi

Headquarters- Mumbai.

India’s GDP expected to grow at 7.3% in 2018-19: World Bank

• World Bank projected India’ GDP, expected to grow at 7.3% in the fiscal year 2018-19, and 7.5% in the following two years.
• The Bank said India will continue to be the fastest growing major economy in the world. In India, the growth has accelerated, driven by an upswing in consumption, and investment growth has firmed as the effects of temporary factors wane, the World Bank said in its latest report.

STATIC :WORLD BANK

President: Jim Yong Kim

Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States

CEO: Kristalina Georgieva

India’s GDP set to eclipse US’ by 2030: Standard Chartered

• Standard Chartered released its long term forecast which states that India will surpass the U.S to become the world’s second largest economy by 2030 while China will be at First Position.
• China will become the largest economy by 2020, using purchasing power parity exchange rates and nominal GDP
• India to accelerate to 7.8 percent by the 2020s while China will moderate to 5 percent by 2030 reflecting a natural slowdown given the economy’s size.

STATIC:Standard Chartered

Headquarter: London

Chairman: Jose Vinals

RBI allows ‘tokenisation’ for more secure card transactions :

• The Reserve Bank of India has allowed tokenization of debit, credit and prepaid card transactions to enhance the safety of the digital payments ecosystem in the country.
• “Tokenisation and de-tokenisation” shall be performed only by the authorized card network and recovery of original Permanent Account Number (PAN) should be feasible for the authorized card network only.

STATIC:RBI

Headquarter: Mumbai

Governor: Shaktikanta Das

RANKINGS

India poised to become third-largest consumer market: WEF

• According to World Economic Forum, India is poised to become the third-largest consumer market behind only the US and China.The report was titled as ‘Future of Consumption in Fast-Growth Consumer Market – India’.
• Consumer spending in India is expected to grow from USD 1.5 trillion at present to nearly USD 6 trillion by 2030.
• According to World Economic Forum (WEF), with an annual GDP growth rate of 7.5 per cent, India is currently the world’s sixth-largest economy.

SPORTS

Mohamed Salah once again named African Footballer of the Year :

• Egypt and Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah has been named African Footballer of the Year for the second time in a row.He received the award at a ceremony in Senegal.
• The Premier League’s player of the year scored 44 goals in 52 games for Liverpool last season.Houston Dash and South Africa forward Thembi Kgatlana was named Women’s Player of the Year.

USA Cricket becomes ICC’s 105th member :

• The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced USA Cricket as its 105th member.
• USA Cricket came into existence after USACA was expelled in June 2017 for lack of cooperation in terms of unifying the cricket community in the country.
• The application of USA Cricket to become the 93rd Associate member in compliance with the ICC constitution, was accepted as per the recommendation of the seven-member Membership Committee to the ICC Board last year.

STATIC:ICC

Headquarter: Dubai, UAE

IMPORTANT DAYS

World Hindi Day is being observed on January 10:

• World Hindi Day is celebrated on January 10 every year, marking the anniversary of first World Hindi Conference which was held in 1975.It was first observed on January 10, 2006.
• The first World Hindi Conference was inaugurated by the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.