Weekly Current Affairs 1st to 8th June 2022

RBI, Banking and Economy

• RBI specifies provisioning norms for NBFC-Upper Layer
  • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has aligned provisioning norms for standard assets of large non-banking financial companies with that for commercial banks.
  • The new norms on standard asset provisioning will come into effect from October 1.

• Centre hikes premium for flagship insurance schemes: Ministry of Finance
  • Centre has increased the premium rates for its flagship insurance schemes, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana (PMJJBY) and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana (PMSBY), for the first time in seven years due to “long-standing adverse claims experience.
  • The premium for PMJJBY would increase from Rs 330 to Rs 436 a year effective June 1, and the PMSBY premium would rise from Rs 12 to Rs 20.

• Edtech startup PhysicsWallah became India's 101st unicorn
  • Edtech platform PhysicsWallah (popularly known as PW) has become India’s 101st unicorn by raising $100 million in Series A funding from WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures.
  • The company was valued at $1.1 billion after closing the transaction.

SEBI & Financial Awareness

• Principal AMC ceases to exist as an Mutual Fund: SEBI
  • Capital markets regulator SEBI announced that Principal Mutual Fund (Principal AMC) will cease to exist as a mutual fund from June 2.
  • The AMC had informed the markets regulator that it wants to surrender the registration granted by the regulator.

• E-scooter growth stagnates after meteoric rise; registrations fall over 24%
  • Electric scooter registrations of eight companies which represent 95% of the market have seen a sharp fall of over 24% in May.
  • They have registered 32,680 electric scooters against 43,098 in April according to VAHAN data from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways available till the evening of 31 May 2022.

• Firms join First Movers Coalition, CEOs to help reskill 1 bn: World Economic Forum
  • More than 50 companies have now joined the First Movers Coalition, which was launched by US President Joe Biden and the World Economic Forum at COP26 to decarbonise the heavy industry and long-distance transport sectors — sectors responsible for 30% of global emissions.

NATIONAL

• “Har Ghar Dastak 2.0” campaign
  • To accelerate the pace and coverage of COVID19 vaccination across States and UTs “HarGharDastak campaign 2.0” has commenced across the country and it will be implemented from 1st June 2022 to 31st July 2022.
  • The objective of the ‘Har GharDastak2.0’ Abhiyan is to vaccinate and cover the eligible population groups for first, second and precaution doses through door-to-door campaigns.

• India-Senegal sign MoUs for cultural exchange, cooperation in youth matters and visa free regime for officials
  • Recently India and Senegal signed three MoUs in Dakar on June 1, 2022, to further deepen their bilateral partnership in various areas.
  • The first MoU pertains to visa-free regime for Diplomatic and Official passport holders which would strengthen cooperation between the two countries through seamless travel of officials/diplomats.
  • Second agreement relates to renewal of Cultural Exchange Progarmme (CEP) for the period 2022-26.
  • Third MoU seeks to enhance bilateral cooperation in youth matters.
  • Headquarters: New Delhi, India

• India and Israel signed a ‘vision Statement’
  • India and Israel signed a ‘vision Statement’ to deepen the long-standing defence cooperation.
  • Both vountries marked 30 years of Israel-India relations and reiterated their commitment to deepening defence ties.

INTERNATIONAL

• Israel signs UAE free trade deal
  • Israel has recently signed a free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates.
  • It is Israel’s first deal with an Arab country.
  • Two-way trade between Israel and the UAE last year totalled some $900 million dollars.

• UN agrees to change Turkey’s official name to ‘Türkiye’
  • The United Nations has changed the Republic of Turkey’s country name at the organisation from “Turkey” to “Türkiye”.
  • Turkey began the move to change its internationally recognised official name in English to Türkiye in December after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan released a memorandum and asked the public to use Türkiye to describe the country in every language.

• North Korea test-fires salvo of missiles
  • North Korea test-fired a barrage of short-range ballistic missiles from multiple locations toward the sea.
  • Possibly setting a single-day record for North Korean ballistic launches, eight missiles were fired in succession over 35 minutes from at least four different locations, including from western and eastern coastal areas and two inland areas north of and near the capital, Pyongyang.
  • The missiles flew 110 to 670 kilometres at maximum altitudes of 25 to 80 kilometres.

STATES

• New judges for Delhi, Calcutta HCs
  • The Law Ministry elevated nine additional judges of the Madras High Court as permanent judges.
  • It extended the term of one additional judge by one more year and appointed new judges to the Delhi and Calcutta High Courts.
  • Advocate Anish Dayal has been appointed a judge in the Delhi High Court.
  • Advocate Amit Sharma had been made an additional judge in the Delhi High Court.
  • Additional judges of the Madras HC who have been elevated are as following:
  • Justices Govindarajulu Chandrasekharan, Veerasamy Sivagnanam, Ganesan llangovan, Ananthi Subramanian, Kannammal Shanmuga Sundaram, Sathi Kumar Sukumara Kurup, Murali Shankar Kuppuraju, Manjula Ramaraju Nalliah and Thamilselvi T. Valayapalayam.

• No more physical stamp papers in Punjab
  • The Punjab government decided to abolish the physical stamp papers in an attempt to bring efficiency and check the pilferage of State revenue and launched the ‘e-stamp facility’.
  • Stamp paper of any denomination can now be obtained via ‘e-stamp’, which includes computerised printout from any stamp vendor or from banks authorised by the State government.

• ₹500 crore allocated for caste survey
  • The Bihar Cabinet allocated a budgetary outlay of ₹500 crore for Cate Survey and setting deadline of February 23 next for completion of the survey.
  • The general administration department shall be the nodal authority for the survey of castes.
  • The State government has embarked on the exercise in the wake of the Centre expressing its inability to undertake headcount of castes other than the SCs and STs as part of the Dalits

REPORTS AND INDEXES

• PhonePe Pulse-BCG Report – “Digital payments in India: A $10 trillion opportunity”
  • Consultancy firm BCG and leading third-party UPI services provider Phonepe have come out with a report, called 'Digital payments in India: A $10 trillion opportunity'.
  • According to the report, digital payments in India will reach $10 trillion in value by 2026 from $3 trillion now, forecasting that cash will increasingly be used less.

• CBRE South Asia Report - “The Evolving Indian Healthcare Ecosystem; What It Means for the Real Estate Sector”
  • CBRE South Asia has released a report report titled: ‘The Evolving Indian Healthcare Ecosystem; What It Means for the Real Estate Sector'.
  • The report is on India’s healthcare sector which shows that India’s healthcare sector will require 1.3 billion sq ft space by 2030. The growth will be driven by emerging healthcare trends like heath-retail outlets apart from regular facilities.

• MFs' debt exposure to NBFCs rises 14.3% to Rs 1.7 trn in March: Report
  • According to a report by CARE Ratings, Mutual funds’ debt exposure in the form of commercial paper (CP) and corporate debt (CD) to non-banking finance companies (NBFCs) rose by 14.3 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1.7 trillion in March.
  • The growth was on account of the issuance of CPs by NBFCs for funding investments in initial public offerings (IPOs) and shifting long-term to short-term investments as the market expected a hike in interest rates.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• A Unique Liquid-Mirror Telescope sees first light in the Indian Himalayas
  • A telescope, commissioned at Devasthal,a hill in Uttarakhand, located at an altitude of 2450 metres will help in surveying and identifying transient or variable objects such as supernovae, gravitational lenses, space debris, and asteroids.
  • It is the first liquid mirror telescope in the country and the largest in Asia.
  • It is Built by astronomers from India, Belgium and Canada.

• Delhi airport introduces RFID tags
  • In a first in India, the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi introduced radio-frequency identification (RFID) enabled baggage tags which will give passengers real-time information about the location of their luggage.
  • The RFID technology will be personalised and help arriving passengers keep track of their check-in luggage. The bag tags will be called ‘Bagg Trax’.

• Corbevax gets approval as first mix-and-match booster vaccine
  • Vaccine manufacturer Biological E’s protein sub-unit Covid-19 vaccine Corbevax has become the first to be approved by the country’s drug regulator as a heterologous booster in adults.
  • It means those who have received Covishield or Covaxin as their first or second dose can take it as a third booster shot.

DEFENCE

• 11th INDIA - ITALY MILITARY COOPERATION GROUP (MCG) MEETING
  • 11th edition of India - Italy Military Cooperation Group (MCG) meeting was held from 31 May 2022 to 01 June 22 at Rome, Italy.
  • India - Italy Military Cooperation Group (MCG) is a forum established to boost defence cooperation between the both countries.

• HAL to convert passenger aircraft into fuel tankers
  • Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, (HAL) will convert six Boeing-767 civilian aircraft into mid-air refuellers for the Indian Air Force (IAF), for which it had entered into an agreement with Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in April.
  • HAL is looking at converting Boeing-747s of Air India for a dedicated cargo role.

• NCC’S PUNEET SAGAR CAMPAIGN
  • NCC has launched the latest phase of its nationwide flagship campaign ‘Puneet Sagar Abhiyan’ on 30 May 2022 and it will continue till 5th June 2022, the World Environment Day.
  • The purpose of the Abhiyan is to educate locals and sensitise them about ‘Swachh Bharat’.

EVENTS

• PM to inaugurate Biotech Startup Expo - 2022 at Pragati Maidan
  • Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will inaugurate the Biotech Startup Expo - 2022 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi on 9th June.
  • The Biotech Startup Expo – 2022 is being organised by the Department of Biotechnology and Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC)
  • It is being held to mark completion of ten years of setting up of BIRAC.
  • The theme of the Expo is ‘Biotech Startup Innovations: Towards AatmaNirbhar Bharat’.

AWARDS AND REWARDS

• President Kovind gives away gallantry awards
  • Recently resident Ram Nath Kovind awarded Kirti Chakra and the Shaurya Chakra:
  • Kirti Chakra :Jammu and Kashmir Police constable Altaf Hussain Bhat (Posthumously)
  • Shaurya Chakra: Group Captain Varun Singh of the India Air Force (IAF) (Posthumously)

• Father Stan Swamy to be honoured
  • Father Stan Swamy, the Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist from Jharkhand will get a “special, posthumous homage” at the Martin Ennals Award in Geneva.
  • The award is widely regarded as the Nobel Prize for human rights defenders.
  • The winners this year are Daouda Diallo from Burkina Faso, Pham Doan Trang from Vietnam and Abdul-Hadi Al-Khawaja of Bahrain.

• Meghalaya Wins Best Project Award at UN World Summit
  • At the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society Forum 2022, an initiative by the Meghalaya government, Meghalaya Enterprise Architecture, received the best project award in the category of “the role of governments in the promotion of ICTs for development".
  • Meghalaya Enterprise Architecture (MeghEA) is the only project from India to win the winner award this year.

SPORTS

• Shibahara and Koolhof win mixed title
  • Ena Shibahara and Wesley Koolhof won the French Open mixed doubles title.
  • The pair defeated Ulrikke Eikeri of Norway and Belgium's Joran Vliegen.

• Swapnil wins silver in 50-metre rifle 3-position
  • Swapnil Kusale was beaten to the gold by the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medallist Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine in the 50-metre rifle 3-position event at the shooting World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan.
  • With a gold and a silver, India was joint seventh in the table with France, Kuwait and US. Korea led with three gold and a bronze.
  • Serbia was second with two gold, a silver and a bronze.

• Home Minister Shri Amit Shah inaugurates Khelo India Youth Games 2021
  • Union Home Minister Shri Amit Shah inaugurated SBI Khelo India Youth Games 2021 at Haryana.
  • Haryana is hosting the fourth edition of the Khelo India Youth Games, a state that is the undisputed Sports Capital of the country.
  • The Union government has raised the sports budget from Rs 864 crore in 2014 to Rs 1,992 crore in 2022.
  • KIYG’s popular mascots are Vijaya the Tiger and Jaya the Blackbuck.
  • Haryana’s own mascot is Dhakad the Bull.