DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS: JANUARY 6 & 7, 2019

Dear Aspirants,

Daily Current Affairs (January 6 & 7, 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

Odisha C.M Naveen Patnaik Announces Interest-Free Loans For Women Self-Help Groups:

• The chief minister also distributed financial assistance of Rs. 3,000 each to six lakh women self-help groups as part of the state government’s efforts to digitally empower women.There are around six lakh WSHGs in Odisha.
• During the convention, Mr Patnaik launched a scheme to distribute Rs. 15,000 seed money per group to three lakh new self-help groups. He also handed over revolving fund of Rs. 25 lakh to 338 block federations.
• The chief minister announced incentives of Rs. 500 per month for anganwadi workers and Rs. 200 for helpers.

STATIC:Odisha

Governor: Ganeshi Lal

Chief Minister :Naveen Patnaik

Ministry of HRD constitutes a task force to look into the issue of JNV:

• The government has constituted a task force to look into the issues of suicides of the students in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas.The task force has been constituted under the Chairmanship of Psychiatrist, Dr Jitendra Nagpal.
• The task force will look into the circumstances leading to the suicidal deaths of students residing in the hostels of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas residential schools. It will also suggest ways and means to arrest the trend of suicides by students.

Government notifies High-Level Committee for implementation of Clause VI of Assam Accord :

• Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has notified a High-level committee of nine members under the chairmanship of Shri M.P. Bezbarauah for implementation of Clause VI of the Assam Accord.
• The Committee will submit its report within 6 months from the date of notification.
• The 9 member Committee headed by retired IAS M.P. Bezbarauah includes eminent Assamese persons from different fields.

STATIC:ASSAM

Capital: Dispur

Governor: Jagdish Mukhi

Chief Minister: Sarbananda Sonowal

Secunderabad Railway Station is the first Railway station to hoist Tricolour National flag on a 100 feet tall pole:

• Secunderabad Railway Station, in Hyderabad, became the first railway station of South Central Railway (SCR) zone to hoist a huge tricolour on a 100-foot tall pole.
• This was done according to the Railway Board’s order to hoist the national flag at 75 A1 category railway stations.

9-day long International Kite Festival kicks off in Ahmedabad:

• The nine-day long international kite festival which marks the Uttarayan or Makar Sankranti, the day when winter season starts changing to summer and farmers welcome the approaching harvest season, kicked off at Sabarmati River Front in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.
• This year’s Kite festival in which Chief Minister Vijay Rupani, Ahmedabad Mayor Bijal Patel and State Revenue Minister Kaushik Patel also took part was inaugurated by Gujarat Governor O P Kohli.

STATIC:Gujarat

Capital: Gandhinagar

Chief Minister: Vijay Rupani

Governor: Om Prakash Kohli

Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu unveils schemes for marginalized Brahmins:

• Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu unveiled various welfare scheme for the marginalized and economically backward Brahmins through AP Brahmin Welfare Corporation such as distribution of Cars to the Unemployed Brahmin youths, loans and subsidies.
• Andhra Pradesh is the first state of the country which has established a Brahmin Corporation which aims to help poor people of Brahmin families by providing financial assistance for education, coaching, entrepreneurship, skill development and welfare and culture.

STATIC:Andhra Pradesh

Capital: Amaravati (de facto), Hyderabad (de jure)

Governor: E.S.L. Narasimhan

Chief Minister: N Chandrababu Naidu

Indian Panorama Film Festival begins in New Delhi :

• A 10-day long Indian Panorama Film Festival began at Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi.The festival is being organized by the Directorate of Film Festivals, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
• A total of 26 Feature Films and 21 Non-Feature Films will be screened during the festival.

STATIC :

Minister of state for Information and Broadcasting: Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.

INTERNATIONAL

Iran approved anti-money laundering bill for ease of business :

• Iranian council known as the Expediency Council approved an anti-money laundering bill to ease trade.
• This bill will be in line with the standards set by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

STATIC:IRAN

Capital: Tehran.

Currency: Iranian rial.

AAI Signs MoU With SAMEER For Boosting Communication :

• Airports Authority of India (AAI) signed MoU with Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER) for joint research programs in the field of Communication Navigation and Surveillance (CNS).
• The MOU, on the one hand, will provide for the transfer of skill by SAMEER experts in the areas of Radio Frequency, Millimetre Wave and Antenna-related solutions to AAI domain experts, while on the other hand, it will pave way for exposure for the SAMEER researchers to the challenging Aviation field.
• Ranade affirmed that the MOU would provide for the synergy of capabilities of both the organisations in their respective domains leading to mutually beneficial and lasting solutions in the ever-growing field of Aviation.

ASI declared 6 monuments of national importance in 2018 :

• The 125-year-old Old High Court Building in Nagpur, Maharashtra, and two Mughal-era monuments in Agra — Haveli of Agha Khan and Hathi Khana — are among the six monuments declared protected and of national importance by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) in 2018.
• The ancient Neemrana Baori in Rajasthan’s Alwar district; the Group of Temples at Ranipur Jharail in Odisha’s Bolangir district; and the Vishnu Temple in Kotali, Pithoragarh district, Uttarkhand, are the three other monuments that have been listed.

BANKING & ECONOMY

Government merges three regional rural banks into single :

• The government has amalgamated three Regional Rural Banks -Punjab Gramin Bank, Malwa Gramin Bank and Sutlej Gramin Bank into a single RRB with effect from January 1.
• The sponsor banks of the RRBs are National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD), the Government of Punjab and Punjab National Bank, State Bank of India and Punjab and Sind Bank.

RBI limits customer liability in fraudulent PPI transactions :

• The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued a notification for all authorised non-bank Prepaid Payment Instrument (PPI) Issuers in order to limit the liability of Customers in unauthorised electronic payment transactions in Prepaid Payment Instruments (PPIs) comprising mobile wallets, prepaid payments cards, and paper vouchers such as Sodexo.
• The RBI said frauds due to third-party breach where neither the customer nor the PPI issuer is at fault, there cannot be any liability for the customer, in case the incident in reported within three days.
• If the fraud is reported between three and seven days, customer liability will amount to the transaction value or Rs.10,000, whichever is lower whereas for fraud reported over seven days, the liability of the customer will be according to the board-approved policy of the PPI issuer.

STATIC:RBI

Governor: Shaktikanta Das

Headquarters: Mumbai

AWARDS & HONOURS

Journalist Dinu Randive conferred with lifetime achievement award :

• Veteran journalist Dinu Randive has been conferred with the lifetime achievement award by the Mantralaya and Vidhimandal Vartahar Sangh, an association of journalists covering Maharashtra legislature and secretariat.
• Award winners in other categories included Vishwas Waghmode, Mahesh Tiwari and Prajakta Pol.

STATIC :Maharashtra:

Capital: Mumbai.

Chief Minister: Devendra Fadnavis.

Governor: C. Vidyasagar Rao.

APPOINTMENTS & RESIGNS

Pentagon chief of staff Kevin Sweeney resigns:

• Rear Admiral Kevin Sweeney resigned as Chief of Staff to the Secretary of Defence, a month after Defence Secretary James Mattis announced his departure.He is now the third senior Pentagon official to announce his resignation.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Govt Allocates Rs 10,900 Cr For Development Of 40 Satellite Launch Vehicles:

• According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman Dr K Sivan statement ,the Union Government has allocated 10,900 crore rupees for the development of 40 satellite launch vehicles in the next four years.
• Dr. Sivan also stated that Chandrayan Mission will be launched within three months. It will land in one part of the Moon which is still unexplored.

SPORTS

Switzerland’s Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic captured the Hopman Cup title for a second year:

• Switzerland’s Roger Federer and Belinda Bencic captured the Hopman Cup title for a second year which was held in Perth, Western Australia, edging Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Angelique Kerber in a deciding mixed doubles match—and in a single deciding point—to seal victory at the team exhibition event .
• It is a mixed competition in which male and female players are on combined teams and represent their countries.It was Switzerland’s fourth title overall, behind only the United States with six.