Daily Current Affairs – December 30 & 31, 2023
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Daily Current Affairs - Banking - December 30 & 31, 2023
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National News
Institute of Chartered Accountants of India unveils new CA India logo
- Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar in the presence of Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal had unveiled the new logo of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) the world’s largest professional body of Chartered Accountants at Global Professional Accountants Convention (GloPAC).
- The logo consists of the letters ‘CA’ in blue with a tricolour tick mark (upside down) on a white background.
- The logo epitomises the institute’s connection to the India-first approach and as a trusted partner in nation-building.
- The blue colour denotes creativity, innovativeness, knowledge, integrity, trust, truth, stability, and depth.
- The upside-down tick mark in tricolour, typically used by Chartered Accountants during audits, has been included to symbolise the wisdom and value of professionals.
- ‘India’ is added to the logo, which epitomises the institute’s commitment to the India First approach and its commitment to serve the Indian economy in the public interest.
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) – 01/07/1949 (Founded) – New Delhi (HQ) – Aniket Sunil Talati
Bhupender Yadav launches National Transit Pass System
- Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav launched the National Transit Pass System (NTPS) pan-India to facilitate the seamless transit of timber, bamboo, and other forest produce across the country.
- NTPS is envisioned as a ‘One Nation-One Pass’ regime that will contribute to the ease of doing business.
- NTPS will help strengthen the journey towards greater transparency.
- NTPS is designed for user convenience, featuring desktop and mobile applications for easy registration and permit applications.
- Presently, 25 States and Union Territories have adopted the unified permit system, streamlining interstate business operations for producers, farmers, and transporters.
- Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) – Bhupender Yadav, Cabinet Minister (Rajya Sabha MP,Rajasthan) – Ashwini Kumar Choubey, Minister of State (Buxar,Bihar)
Gujarat emerges as India's 'petro capital'
- Gujarat is now recognised as the ‘petro capital’ of India, With the world’s largest grassroot oil refinery in Jamnagar and OPaL petrochemical complex at Dahej in Bharuch district.
- Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) Jamnagar refinery is the largest and most complex single-site refinery in the world with 4 million barrels per day (MMBPD) crude processing capacity.
Urban Affairs Minister Inaugurates National Street Food Festival in New Delhi
- Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said that PM SVANidhi scheme has benefitted over 57 lakh street vendors across the country.
- That 45 percent of beneficiaries of the scheme are women and 72 percent belong to marginalised sections.
- Over 80 lakh loans have been sanctioned and 76 lakh 22 thousand loans worth 10 thousand 58 crore rupees have been disbursed under the scheme.
- The street food festival is being organized by the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi.
- The three-day food festival aims to provide recognition to street foods and vendors.
- According to the NASVI, more than 80 stalls have been set up at the stadium serving a variety of dishes from all over the country.
- People can visit the food festival from 12 noon to 10 PM with a ticket, costing ₹130.
- Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs – Hardeep Singh Puri,Cabinet Minister (Rajya Sabha MP,UP) – Kaushal Kishore, Minister of State (Mohanlalganj,UP)
International News
BJP president releases commemorative stamp on 200 years of Indian origin Tamils in Sri Lanka
- Bharatiya Janata Party President P. Nadda released a commemorative stamp on 200 years of arrival of Indian-origin Tamils in Sri Lanka.
- The stamp will be received by Senthil Thondaman, the governor of Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province.
- Sri Lanka – Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte (legislative) Colombo (executive and judicial) (Capital) – Sri Lankan rupee (Currency) – Ranil Wickremesinghe (President) – Dinesh Gunawardena (Prime Minister) – Sinhala & Tamil (Language)
State News
Gujarat to introduce India's first submarine tourism in Dwarka
- The Gujarat government is set to introduce India’s first submarine tourism.
- It has joined hands with the Mazgaon Dock Limited (MDL) in a project to explore the marine life surrounding Bet Dwarka, a small island off the coast of Dwarka city, which has a mythological significance in the Hindu religion.
- The project is on the lines of the Titanic submersible expedition, which recently made news after one of its vessels tragically imploded in the Atlantic Ocean.
- Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders Limited (MDL) – 1934 (Founded) – Mumbai (HQ) – Sanjeev Singhal (Chairman & MD)
Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren reduces qualifying age for pension to 50 from 60
- Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said that the state government has reduced the qualifying age for old-age pension from 60 to 50.
- The government would reserve 75% of the jobs for locals in companies that set up offices in the state.
- Jharkhand – Ranchi (Capital)– Hemant Soren (CM) – CP Radhakrishnan (Governor) – Hindi (Language)
Maharashtra clears setting up of Maharashtra Drone Mission
- In Maharashtra, the State government has cleared the setting up of the Maharashtra Drone Mission (MDM) for the use of drone technology for functions ranging from security surveillance, rescue, and relief work during disasters, delivery of emergency medicines and vaccines to remote areas, monitoring of infrastructure projects and traffic management.
- A five-year implementation plan has been prepared based on a report by a team of experts from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay which would be monitored by a Committee headed by the Chief Secretary.
- The Drone Mission will be headquartered at IIT-B.
- Maharashtra – Mumbai (Capital) – Eknath Shinde (CM) – Ramesh Bais (Governor) – Marathi (Language)
Narendra Modi inaugurates redeveloped Ayodhya railway station, flags off 8 trains
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the redeveloped Ayodhya railway station and flagged off two Amrit Bharat and six Vande Bharat trains, some virtually.
- And also inaugurate an airport and lay the foundation of development projects worth more than ₹15,700 crores for Uttar Pradesh.
- These include projects worth about ₹11,100 crores for the development of ayodhya and its surrounding areas, and projects worth about ₹4,600 crores related to other works across Uttar Pradesh.
- The Phase-I of the redeveloped station — Ayodhya Dham Junction Railway Station — has been completed at a cost of more than ₹240 crores.
- These include the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra-New Delhi Vande Bharat Express, the Amritsar-Delhi Vande Bharat Express, the Coimbatore-Bangalore Cantt Vande Bharat Express, the Mangalore-Madgaon Vande Bharat Express, the Jalna-Mumbai Vande Bharat Express and the Ayodhya-Anand Vihar Terminal Vande Bharat Express.
- And inaugurated the Maharishi Valmiki International Airport (earlier known as Ayodhya International Airport)
- Ayodhya’s grand airport has been built by the Airport Authority of India after signing a MoU with the Government of Uttar Pradesh in April last year.
- Phase 1 of the state-of-the-art airport has been developed at a cost of more than ₹1,450 crores.
Schemes
Odisha Launches Third Phase of Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana
- The Odisha government launched the third phase of the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) in which all families of rural areas of the state who were not covered under the first two phases of the scheme, will be assured of cashless care in private hospitals for critical ailments.
- With this third phase of expansion, it is estimated that around 90 per cent of the population of the state will be provided health assurance under the BSKY.
- Under BSKY, every month over 45 lakh persons receive free health care at public health facilities in the state, while 3 lakh persons receive cashless care adding that this amounts to ₹260 crores each month in empaneled private hospitals.
- The Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana launched on August 15 2018 aims to provide Universal Health coverage, with special emphasis on the health protection of economically vulnerable families.
- Odisha – Bhubaneswar (Capital) – Naveen Patnaik (CM) – Raghubar Das (Governor) – Odia (Language)
Manipur government decides to implement seven schemes for the people
- Manipur Government has decided to implement seven schemes for the people of the state.
- The seven schemes – Chief Minister’s Farmers Livelihood Support Scheme, Chief Minister One Village One Playground, Chief Minister’s Sports Persons Livelihood Guarantee scheme, Schemes for construction of recognized tribal libraries with digital infrastructure, Chief Minister’s Ima Nongthang Leima Yaifa Tengbang Scheme, School Fagathansi Mission 2.0 and College Fagathansi mission will be implemented in the state.
- Manipur – Imphal (Capital) – N. Biren Singh (CM) – Anusuiya Uikey (Governor) – Manipuri (Language)
Government spent ₹13.50 crores to operate Electoral Bond Scheme
- The State Bank of India (SBI), which is authorised to issue Electoral Bonds (EBs), has charged ₹13.50 crore to the government towards commission, printing and other expenses for managing and operating the ‘Electoral Bonds Scheme’.
- An amount of ₹11.60 crore, inclusive of GST, has been levied to the government as commission so far, consequent to the sale of Electoral Bonds in 29 Phases.
- State Bank of India (SBI) – 01/07/1955 (Founded) – Mumbai (HQ) – Dinesh Kumar Khara (Chairman) – “Pure Banking, Nothing Else” (Tagline)
Banking and Finance
Government raises interest rates on small savings schemes by 10-20 bps for Jan-Mar 2024
- The central government has raised the rate of interest on two small savings scheme for January-March 2024 by 10-20 basis points, making it the sixth quarter in a row that rates on these instruments have been increased.
- The finance ministry started raising small savings interests in October-December 2022 after leaving them unchanged for nine consecutive quarters.
- The rate of interest on the three-year time deposit has been increased by 10 basis points 1 percent from 7.0 percent.
- Further, the rate of interest on the Sukanya Samriddhi Account Scheme has been hiked by 20 basis points to 2 percent for January-March 2024.
- One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage point.
RBI extends payments infrastructure development fund scheme till 2025
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) announced its decision to extend the Payments Infrastructure Development Fund (PIDF) for two years up to December 31, 2025.
- Earlier, the scheme was launched in 2021 for a period of three years.
- As part of the announcement, beneficiaries of the PM Vishwakarma Scheme have been included as merchants under the PIDF scheme.
- Similarly, soundbox devices and Aadhaar-enabled biometric devices are eligible to claim subsidy as part of the scheme.
- Additionally, the subsidy for special focus areas, such as North Eastern states, Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh, has been standardised at 90 per cent from 75 per cent of the device cost, irrespective of the device type.
- The corpus of PIDF stands at ₹1,026.37 crores as of November 30, 2023.
- Reserve Bank of India (RBI) – 01/04/1935 (Founded) – Mumbai (HQ) – Shaktikanta Das (Governor)
Business and Economy
Fifty-one mineral exploration projects worth over ₹419 crores approved this year by National Mineral Exploration Trust
- Fifty-one mineral exploration projects worth over ₹419 crores have been approved this year by National Mineral Exploration Trust.
- Geological Survey of India has taken up a total of 358 Mineral Exploration Projects this year.
- The government has launched the first auction process for twenty-four critical and strategic minerals.
- Geological Survey of India (GSI) – 04/03/1851 (Founded) – Kolkata (HQ) – Janardan Prasad (Director General)
Power
PNGRB and World Bank studying pathways for transmission of Hydrogen via gas pipelines
- The Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) has joined hands with the World Bank and initiated a study to develop pathways for transmission of Hydrogen in natural gas pipelines both on its own and as Hydrogen blended with Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).
- The study comprises of mapping demand and supply of Hydrogen, Technical Assessment of the existing pipeline network for its compatibility, commercial assessment of the pipeline sector, identifying bottlenecks in of policy and regulatory framework and framing of roadmap milestones till 2040 for expeditious implementation of Hydrogen-blending in India.
- Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) – 31/03/2006 (Formed) – New Delhi (HQ) – Anil Kumar Jain (Chairman)
Acquisitions and Mergers
LIC reduced stake in BHEL to 9.617%
- Life Insurance Corporation of India has reduced its shareholding in Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd to 617 per cent from 11.701 per cent.
- LIC sold the shares at an average price of ₹79.58 through secondary market between June 2019 and December 2023.
- Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) – 01/09/1956 (Founded) – Mumbai (HQ) – Siddhartha Mohanty (Chairman)
Appointments
Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force
- Anish Dayal Singh, a Manipur-cadre IPS officer of 1988 batch, has been made the first women Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force, the world’s largest paramilitary force till July 31, 2024, i.e. the date of her superannuation by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet
- She was holding the additional charge of the CRPF following the retirement of incumbent S L Thaosen on November 30.
- Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) – 27/07/1939 (Founded) – New Delhi (HQ) – Anish Dayal Singh (Director General)
Chief of Central Industrial Security Force
- Nina Singh becoming the first woman of Director General the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) till her superannuation on July 31, 2024.
- Nina Singh a 1989-batch IPS officer of Rajasthan cadre, is currently working as Special DG, CISF.
- Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) – 10/03/1969 (Formed) – New Delhi (HQ) – Nina Singh (Director General)
Special director in the Intelligence Bureau (IB)
- Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved Intelligence Bureau officer Rahul Rasgotra’s appointment as Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) chief till September 30, 2025.
- Rahul Rasgotra, a 1989-batch IPS officer currently serves as a special director in the Intelligence Bureau (IB).
- Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) – 1962 (Founded) – New Delhi (HQ) – Rahul Rasgotra (Director General)
Director General, Fire Service, Civil Defence and Home Guards
- Vivek Srivastava, a 1989-batch IPS officer of Gujarat cadre, will be Director General, Fire Service, Civil Defence and Home Guards till June 30, 2025.
- He is at present a special director in Intelligence Bureau (IB).
- Intelligence Bureau (IB) – 1887 (Founded) – New Delhi (HQ) – Tapan Deka (Director)
Director (HR) of Indian Oil Corporation
- Rashmi Govil, a senior HR executive at Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), is set to be next Director (Human Resources) of the state-owned firm.
- She is presently Executive Director (HRD & ER) in IOC.
- Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) – 30/06/1959 (Founded) – New Delhi (HQ) – Shrikant Madhav Vaidya (Chairman)
Awards and Recognitions
Recipient of 2023 Kuvempu Award
- Shirshendhu Mukyopadhyaya, the renowned Bengali writer and novelist, is the recipient of the 2023 Kuvempu Rashtriya Puraskar.
- The award includes a cash prize of ₹5 lakh, a silver medal, and a citation.
- The Rashtrakavi Kuvempu Trust instituted this national annual literary award in 2013 to recognise litterateurs who had contributed to any language recognised by the constitution of India.
- Last year, the award was given to Tamil writer
Sports News
Virat Kohli becomes first batter to hit 2000 runs in 7 different years
- Veteran batsman Virat Kohli made history by becoming the first player to score 2000 runs in seven different calendar years.
- In 2012 (2186 runs), 2014 (2286 runs), 2016 (2595 runs), 2017 (2818 runs), 2018 (2735 runs), 2019 (2455 runs) and 2023 (2048 runs).
Defence
Delivery of 7th 250 Men Ferry Craft ‘Manjula’ (Yard 786)
- The 7th ferry craft ‘Manjula’ (Yard 786) has been handed over to the Indian Navy in the presence of Rear Admiral Deepak Kumar Goswami, ASD (MBI).
- Contract for construction and delivery of 07 x 250 Men Ferry Craft was concluded with M/s Shalimar Works Ltd, Kolkata, in consonance with “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” initiatives of the Government of India.
- Six out of Seven Ferrycraft have already been delivered to Indian Navy.
Defence Secretary inaugurates new design & test facility at HAL’s Aero Engine Research & Development Centre in Bengaluru
- Defence Secretary Giridhar Aramane inaugurated a new design and test facility at Aero Engine Research and Development Centre (AERDC) of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in Bengaluru, Karnataka.
- The AERDC is currently involved in the design and development of several new engines including two strategic engines – Hindustan Turbo Fan Engine (HTFE) of 25 kN thrust for powering trainers, UAV’s, twin engine small fighter aircraft or regional jets and Hindustan Turbo Shaft Engine (HTSE) of 1200 kN thrust for powering light and medium weight helicopters (3.5 to 6.5 tonnes in single/ twin engine configuration).
- The new state-of-the-art facility, spanning over 10,000 sq. meters, houses special machines, advanced setups leveraging on computational tools, in-house fabrication facility and two test beds for testing HTFE-25 and one testbed each for testing HTSE-1200 and upcoming JV engine for IMRH to be co-developed by Safran, France and HAL.
- The newly developed facility has set-ups for testing Air producer of Jaguar, Gas Turbine Starter Unit (GTSU) – 110 M2 and 127E of Light Combat Aircraft, Auxiliary Power Units of Indian Multi-Role Helicopter and Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft, Gas Turbine Electrical Generator (GTEG)-60 for An-32 aircraft. Set-ups to carry out various critical tests for engine components and Line Replacement Units (LRUs) have also been established within the new facility.
- Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) – 22/12/1940 (HQ) – Bangalore (HQ) – CB Ananthakrishnan (Chairperson & MD)
Daily Current Affairs - December 30 & 31, 2023 - Consolidated
- Institute of Chartered Accountants of India unveils new CA India logo
- Bhupender Yadav launches National Transit Pass System
- Gujarat emerges as India’s ‘petro capital’
- Urban Affairs Minister Inaugurates National Street Food Festival in New Delhi
- BJP president releases commemorative stamp on 200 years of Indian origin Tamils in Sri Lanka
- Gujarat to introduce India’s first submarine tourism in Dwarka
- Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren reduces qualifying age for pension to 50 from 60
- Maharashtra clears setting up of Maharashtra Drone Mission
- Narendra Modi inaugurates redeveloped Ayodhya railway station, flags off 8 trains
- Odisha Launches Third Phase of Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana
- Manipur government decides to implement seven schemes for the people
- Government spent ₹13.50 crores to operate Electoral Bond Scheme
- Government raises interest rates on small savings schemes by 10-20 bps for Jan-Mar 2024
- RBI extends payments infrastructure development fund scheme till 2025
- Fifty-one mineral exploration projects worth over ₹419 crores approved this year by National Mineral Exploration Trust
- PNGRB and World Bank studying pathways for transmission of Hydrogen via gas pipelines
- LIC reduced stake in BHEL to 9.617%
- Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force
- Chief of Central Industrial Security Force
- Special director in the Intelligence Bureau (IB)
- Director General, Fire Service, Civil Defence and Home Guards
- Director (HR) of Indian Oil Corporation
- Recipient of 2023 Kuvempu Award
- Virat Kohli becomes first batter to hit 2000 runs in 7 different years
- Delivery of 7th 250 Men Ferry Craft ‘Manjula’ (Yard 786)
- Defence Secretary inaugurates new design & test facility at HAL’s Aero Engine Research & Development Centre in Bengaluru
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