Weekly Current Affairs 1st - 8th May 2022

FINANCE AND BANKING

• RBI issues Guidelines on Compensation of Key Managerial Personnel (KMP) and Senior Management in NBFCs
  • RBI issued guidelines for compensation of key managerial personnel and senior management of non-banking finance companies, RBI said that the finance companies have to constitute a nomination and remuneration committee (NRC), which will have the mandate to oversee the framing, review and implementation of compensation policy of the company with the approval of the board.
  • NRC will also have to work with the risk management committee of the company to achieve effective alignment between compensation and risks.

• Regulations Review Authority recommends withdrawal of 225 more circulars: RBI
  • Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said the Regulations Review Authority has recommended the withdrawal of additional 225 redundant circulars.
  • RBI had set up the Regulations Review Authority (RRA 2.0) with an objective to reduce the compliance burden on regulated entities (REs).

• Highlights Of RBI's Monetary Policy Committee Off-Cycle Meeting
  • On 2 and May 4, RBI held an off-cycle meeting of RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee.
  • Monetary Policy Committee is responsible for fixing the benchmark interest rate in India.
  • The committee comprises six members - three officials of the Reserve Bank of India and three external members nominated by the Government of India.

ECONOMY

• Second phase of mandatory gold hallmarking to be implemented from June 1: Government of India
  • Government of India said the second phase of mandatory hallmarking of gold jewellery and artefacts will come into force from June 1 this year.
  • Gold hallmarking is a purity certification of the precious metal and was voluntary in nature till June 16, 2021, when the government decided to implement mandatory gold hallmarking in a phased manner.

• Shri Narayan Rane inaugurates “Enterprise India” a month long initiative to promote entrepreneurship culture in the country
  • Union Minister for Micro ,Small and Medium Enterprises Shri Narayan Rane today inaugurated the Ministry’s Mega Event: “Enterprise India” under the celebrations of Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.
  • “Enterprise India” is a series of commemorative entrepreneurship development events and activities being organised from 27.04.2022 up to 27.05.2022 to promote entrepreneurship culture and create awareness about the schemes and initiatives of Ministry of MSME across the country.

• PM Modi virtually inaugurates Global Patidar Business Summit 2022 in Surat, Gujarat
  • The three-day business summit is being organised by Sardardham, an organisation devoted to the Patidar community in the state. Two earlier editions of the summit were held in 2018 and 2020.
  • Prime Minister laid importance on self-reliance and said it is the constant effort of the government through its policies and its actions that such an environment should be created in the country that youths of even ordinary families become entrepreneurs.

NATIONAL

• Priyanka Mohite Becomes First Indian Woman To Scale Five Peaks Above 8,000m
  • After climbing the third highest mountain in the world Mount Kanchenjunga(8,586 m), Priyanka Mohite from Satara in western Maharashtra has become the first Indian woman to scale five peaks above 8,000 metres.
  • Priyanka Mohite is a recipient of Tenzing Norgay Adventure Award 2020.

• RailTel & WHO inaugurated Mobile Container Hospital
  • The RailTel Corporation of India Ltd has designed and established a “Health Cloud" at Visakhapatnam premises of Andhra Pradesh Med Tech Zone (AMTZ).
  • The Andhra Pradesh Med Tech Zone (AMTZ) is the world’s first integrated medical device manufacturing hub. The “Health Cloud" at AMTZ has been inaugurated by Louise Agersnap, Head of WHO Innovation Hub, WHO-Geneva.

INTERNATIONAL

• World's smallest porpoise, Vaquita, on the edge of extinction
  • World's smallest marine mammal,Vaquitas, have been pushed to the brink of going extinct due to illegal gillnetting, which is used to capture shrimp and totoaba fish that share the same habitat as the porpoises.
  • The world's smallest marine mammal is so critically endangered that there are only about 10 remaining in its sole habitat of Mexico's Gulf of California.

• Nepal, US sign development assistance agreement
  • Nepal and US signed an agreement bringing USD 659 million to the Himalayan nation in assistance.
  • The grant for the next five-year period will support Nepal’s goal of graduating to a middle-income country, Nepal plans to graduate from the Least Developed Country category by December 2026.

• Andy Jassy will become Amazon’s CEO on July 5th
  • Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos has announced that Andy Jassy, the current CEO of Amazon Web Services (AWS), will take over as the CEO of the commerce giant on July 5.
  • On this date Amazon was incorporated in 1994, exactly 27 years ago.
  • About half of the company's revenue comes from AWS, which is the Cloud arm of Amazon, logged $54 billion annualised run rate -- a 32 per cent year-over-year growth -- in March quarter this year.

STATES

• India’s ‘first’ tribal health observatory
  • Odisha is set to come up with India’s first Tribal Health Observatory (TriHOb) that will establish a repository on the health of the tribal population in the state.
  • A memorandum of understanding was inked in this regard between the ST and SC Development Department and the RMRC, a regional centre of the Indian Council of Medical Research.

• Indian Army signs tripartite MoU for ‘Manipur Super 50’
  • Red Shield Division of Indian Army under the aegis of Spear Corps entered into a tripartite agreement with State Bank of India Foundation (SBIF) and National Integrity and Educational Development Organization (NIEDO) to establish ‘Red Shield Centre for Excellence and Wellness’ in Manipur’s Bishnupur district.
  • The project ‘Manipur Super 50’ is expected to be fully functional for the first batch of 50 students by the first week of July, 2022.

• Maharashtra Gene Bank Project
  • To conserve native and endangered animals, crops, marine and biological species, Maharashtra has decided to set up a gene bank project.
  • The ‘Maharashtra Gene Bank Project’ will work on seven themes -- marine, crop, veterinary, freshwater, grassland biodiversity, protection and management of forest right areas, and regeneration of forests.

REPORTS AND INDEXES

• PSBs’ credit growth crowding in credit growth from private sector banks: SBI economic research report Ecowrap
  • Expansion in ‘public sector banks’ (PSBs) credit is crowding in credit growth from private sector banks (PVBs), with the banking system ending FY22 with an incremental credit growth at ₹10.5 lakh crore, 1.8 times higher than the growth of ₹5.8 lakh crore in FY21.
  • In FY22, the weighted contribution of PSBs in overall credit growth was as much as 43%.

• India adds 10 GW solar capacity in 2022: Mercom Communications India report
  • Solar capacity installations in the country jumped by a record 210% to 10 gigawatts during 2021.
  • The green capacity installations reached a level of 3.2 gigawatts (GW) in 2020.
  • In 2021, India saw a record 10 GW of new solar capacity installed, a big jump of 210% compared to 3.2 GW the year before.

• Indian Economy Can Grow At 6.5-8.5% In Medium Term: RBI
  • The Indian economy can sustain a GDP growth rate of 6.5-8.5% in the medium term, contingent upon a series of reforms, the Reserve Bank of India said in its annual ‘Currency and Finance Report’ themed ‘Revive and Reconstruct’.
  • RBI acknowledged that economic activity has barely recovered to pre-Covid levels as it faces challenges from the legacy of deep-rooted structural bottlenecks as well as the scars of the pandemic.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

• IIT Mandi team discovers molecule that can be used for treatment of diabetes
  • Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi have discovered a drug molecule that can be used to treat diabetes.
  • The molecule, named PK2, is able to trigger the release of insulin by the pancreas and can potentially be used as an orally administered medicine for diabetes.

• India Venus Mission
  • After sending missions to the Moon and Mars, ISRO is now readying a spacecraft to orbit Venus to study what lies below the surface of the hottest planet in the solar system and also unravel the mysteries under the sulfuric acid clouds enveloping it.

• IIT Bombay Ties Up With India Meteorological Department
  • The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Bombay) has tied up with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) to develop climate solutions for the stakeholder at village, city and district level.

AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

• The State of the World's Forests (SOFO) 2022
  • The 2022 edition of The State of the World’s Forests explores the potential of three forest pathways for achieving green recovery and tackling environmental crises, including climate change and biodiversity loss against the backdrop of the Glasgow Leaders’ Declaration on Forests and Land Use and the pledge of 140 countries to eliminate forest loss by 2030 and to support restoration and sustainable production and consumption.

• National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is planning to create a farmer distress index (FDI)
  • NABARD is planning to create a farmer distress index (FDI) with the aim of tracking, identifying, and supporting the real distressed and needy farmers of India.
  • Depending on the distress level, the financial institutions and the government can decide on an appropriate support package instead of handing out a distress package to all the farmers as is the current practice.

EVENTS

• SemiconIndia Conference 2022
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the three-day SemiconIndia Conference, 2022, which was held from April 29 to May 1. It’s a collective aim to establish India as one of the key partners in the global semiconductors supply chain.
  • The event featured prominent figures from industry groups, research organisations, academia, and industry discussed the potential, problems, and new solutions that would help India’s semicon ecosystem grow faster.

• Satyajit Ray Film Festival
  • Veteran Film Maker Shyam Benegal inaugurated the Satyajit Ray’s semi-permanent Gallery at the National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC) in Mumbai and marked the beginning of the three-day Satyajit Ray Film Festival across the country on 04 may.
  • The exhibition helps the visitors to discover the legend who was lovingly called as ‘Manik Da’ and the jewels from his world, he left for us 30 years ago.

• PM Modi attends second India-Nordic summit in Copenhagen
  • Prime Minister Narendra Modi attended the second India-Nordic summit in Denmark that primarily focused on post-pandemic economic recovery, climate change, renewable energy and the evolving global security scenario.
  • The summit saw the participation of the prime ministers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden.

AWARDS AND REWARDS

• India to be ‘Country of Honour’ at Cannes Marche’ Du Film 2022
  • India will be the official ‘Country of Honour’ at the upcoming Marche’ Du Film, which is organized alongside the Cannes Film Festival, in France.
  • Among the highlights of this year’s festival will be the world premiere of R Madhavan’s film ‘Rocketry: The Nambi Effect’, a biographical drama film based on the life of Nambi Narayanan, a former scientist and aerospace engineer of the Indian Space Research Organisation who was falsely accused of espionage. Produced by Madhavan, the movie will be showcased on May 19.

• Nasa climate research scientist awarded World Food prize
  • A Nasa climate research scientist,Cynthia Rosenzweig who has spent much of her career explaining how global food production must adapt to a changing climate was awarded the World Food prize.

SPORTS

• Harshda Garud for winning gold medal in World Junior Weightlifting Championships
  • Harshada Sharad Garud earned India’s first gold medal in weightlifting at the IWF Junior World Championships in Greece.
  • Harshada claimed the yellow metal with a total effort of 153kg (70kg+83kg) in the women's 45kg category, opening India's account on the opening day of the competition.

• European C’ships title
  • Carolina Marin claimed the women’s singles European Championships title for the sixth consecutive time.
  • Carolina Marin outclassed Scotland’s Kirsty Gilmour in straight games at the 2022 European Badminton Championships in Madrid.

• PV Sindhu won bronze at Asian Badminton Championships
  • Double Olympic medallist P V Sindhu ended her Badminton Asia Championships campaign with a bronze on April 30.
  • This is Sindhu's second medal in the tournament -- she had claimed a bronze in the 2014 Gimcheon edition.