Focus Merit

All in One Current Affairs

Click on the Underlined Text for additional Static information.

  • Select a topic

  • Date Range

    • From
    • To

  • Sort Current Affairs

  • No. of CAs per page

  • Select Category

World Gold Outlook 2020: RBI at 6th position in buying gold abroad

January 22, 2020

“World Gold Outlook 2020” has been released by World Gold Council in which it placed Reserve Bank of India on 6th position in the largest buyer of sovereign gold abroad. RBI currently holds 625.2 tonnes of gold which is 6.6% of the country’s foreign exchange.

The other 5 countries that have bought more gold than India include China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey and Poland. Higher taxes have exacerbated the local gold price consumption. The recently introduces new hallmarking reforms are expected to increase consumer trust, remove inefficiencies, promote growth and improve confidence.

Supreme Court forms committee to draft mediation law

January 22, 2020

The Supreme Court has set up a panel to firm up a draft legislation to give legal sanctity to disputes settled through mediation, which would then be sent to the government as a suggestion from the apex court. The panel, to be headed by mediator Niranjan Bhat, will recommend a code of conduct for mediators, who are legal experts.

On January 12, the committee met in Hyderabad to consider suggestions for a legislation put forth by mediators from all over India. The mediators emphasised on confidentiality, the voluntary nature of the process, neutrality, avoiding conflicts of interest, enforceability of settlement etc.

The other members of the panel, appointed by the Mediation and Project Conciliation Committee (MCPC) of the Supreme Court, included Justice K Kanan, former ASGs AS Chandok and PS Narsimha, senior advocates Sriram Panchu and JP Singh, and senior mediators Susheela S, Sadhna Ramchandran, Laila Ollapally, and Anil Xavier.

India starts thermal screening of passengers for Coronavirus

January 22, 2020

India on Tuesday expanded thermal screening of passengers arriving from China including Hong Kong to seven airports for preventing any entry of ‘Novel Corona Virus Disease (nCoV) in the country. Ministry of Civil Aviation has called for immediate implementation of the action plan and strict adherence by identified airports and all concerned airlines.

Following advisory from National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, the Ministry of Civil Aviation directed for all logistics support and arrangements to be made immediately with regard to screening of passengers arriving in India from China including Hong Kong at the identified airports i.e. Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Cochin along with three airports at Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata identified earlier.

Yogeshwar Dutt & Deepa Malik inducted in All India Council of Sports

January 22, 2020

Paralympian Deepa Malik and wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt have been inducted in the All India Council of Sports (AICS) along with shooter Anjali Bhagwat, footballer Renedy Singh, mountaineer Bachendri Pal and former Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.

AICS is an advisory body to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports which was formed in 2015 by the  then Sports Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. Its term has also been extended by three years and veteran sports administrator K Malhotra will continue as President.

A legal framework to prevent sexual harassment at the workplace

January 22, 2020

The Group of Ministers (GoM) headed by Home Minister Amit Shah, which was constituted to strengthen the legal framework to prevent sexual harassment at the workplace, has finalised its recommendations. The recommendations, includes addition of new provisions to the Indian Penal Code, which will be put up for comments from the public.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Human Resource and Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal and Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Irani are among the other members of GoM. The GoM was constituted first in October 2018 in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement when many women shared their ordeal on social media.

The Women and Child Development Ministry had steered the Sexual Harassment of Women and Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act in 2013, which was applicable to government offices, the private sector, NGOs and the unorganised sector.

Rs 5,000 cr approved to promote indigenization of defence equipment

January 22, 2020

Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has approved procurement of equipment worth over Rs. 5000 crore from indigenous sources to promote indigenization. They include sophisticated Electronic Warfare Systems for the Army manufactured locally by the Indian industry and designed by Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

The systems will provide comprehensive Electronic Support and Counter Measure capabilities to the field formations in both communication and other aspects of Electronic Warfare. The systems will be used in deserts and plains. The DAC headed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh met to consider a number of new and ongoing proposals for procuring critically needed platforms and equipment for the Armed Forces.

The council also approved prototype testing of trawl assemblies designed by DRDO for T-72 and T-90 tanks providing an important indigenous de-mining capability to the Army. The DAC also accorded approval for inclusion of Innovations for Defence Excellence (iDEX) in Defence Procurement Procedure.

UN report: Global unemployment to rise by 2.5 million in 2020

January 22, 2020

According to UN’s International Labour Organization report – Global unemployment is projected to increase by around 5 million in 2020. Almost half a billion people are working fewer paid hours than they would like or lack adequate access to paid work.

The World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2020 (WESO) report has been released and it states that global unemployment has been roughly stable for the last nine years but slowing global economic growth means that, as the global labour force increases, not enough new jobs are being generated to absorb new entrants to the labour market.

RBI cancels certificate of authorisation of Vodafone m-pesa

January 22, 2020

The Reserve Bank of India cancelled the Certificate of Authorisation (CoA) of Vodafone m-pesa after its voluntary surrender of authorisation. Hence, the company cannot transact business of issuance and operation of Prepaid payment Instruments.

However, the customers or merchants having a valid claim on the company as a PSO, can approach the company till September 30, 2022 for settlement of their claims within three years from the date of cancellation, as stated by The Central Bank.

Odisha’s 44 underprivileged children to get their 1st flight experience

January 22, 2020

44 Divyang children from Odisha will experience the joy of flying aboard in a special Alliance Air flight from Biju Patnaik International Airport in Bhubaneswar. The children includes 21 girls and 23 boys coming from poor families, who will get this opportunity. It will be a 40 minute tour and the special flight will take off at 9:30 am.

The initiative is a result of joint collaboration of Ministry of Civil Aviation, Airport Authority of India (AAI) and Alliance Air with Government of Odisha. The AAI has waived all the cost of flying and Odisha Government has extended full support to this initiative.

Bengaluru: Exclusive sports ground for visually impaired cricketers

January 22, 2020

Visually impaired cricketers are likely to get a dedicated sports training complex that will enable them to develop into professional players, as stated by the Cricket Association for the Blind in India (CABI).

In an interview with the media persons in Bengaluru Mahantesh G K, President of CABI and head of Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, informed that CABI has approached the Karnataka government with a request to allot 25 acres of land to set up a sports complex with a training ground, gymnasium and swimming pool, and has received a positive response.

CABI has been striving to develop cricket on a large scale among visually impaired people by identifying and encouraging school students, and adults. The entire facility will be sensitive to the needs of people with visual and other disabilities so that everyone can come and practice their respective sports.

Government approves pact for seafarers’ competency certificate

January 23, 2020

The government on 22 January, 2020 approved a model pact with foreign countries for recognition of seafarers’ competency certificates. The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This will pave the way for mutual recognition of maritime education and training of seafarers by the countries involved.

The pact will facilitate unilateral recognition certificates issued by the Directorate General of Shipping to Indian seafarers by another country, without seeking similar acknowledgment by India of the certificates issued by that country. Indian seafarers will be eligible to be placed on ships under the flag of that country for employment, thus leading to increased employment opportunities, the ministry said.

Japanese tech major NTT to invest in data centres in India

January 23, 2020

Japanese tech company NTT Data will make an investment of $1.5 billion (Rs 11,000 crore) for data centre business in India for next four years. The investment will be split equally between the four regions and the overall investments are bound to be shared proportionately.

The company is targeting to more than double its capacity in the next three years through the investments. Its overall capacity, which stands at 1.2 million sq ft at present spread across Mumbai, Noida, Chennai and it will go up by 1.5 million sq ft.

The company is looking at going to newer locations as well and also adding to its land bank to house the facilities. India is the fastest-growing region for NTT and a substantial amount of the USD 7 billion commitment will be invested.

India Ratings and Research expects GDP growth at 5.5 percent in FY21

January 23, 2020

According to India Ratings and Research, India’s GDP is expected to grow at 5.5 percent in FY21 as against the estimated 5 percent in FY20. The slowdown was due to a combination of factors including an abrupt and significant fall in NBFCs’ and bank lending, reduced income growth and savings of households and rising debt.

Sunil Sinha, economist, India Ratings stated that, a strong policy push coupled with some heavy lifting by the government is required to revive the domestic demand cycle and catapult the economy back into a high growth phase. According to the ratings firm, a continuance of low GDP growth even in FY21 means subdued tax revenue and limited room for stepping up expenditure.

Digital ATM service launched by PhonePe

January 23, 2020

Popular e-commerce company PhonePe has recently launched its new ‘PhonePe ATM’ feature which will allow customers to take cash from merchants offering this facility. The service has been launched on a pilot basis in the Delhi-NCR region on Thursday and will soon be open in other parts of the country if it earns a good response from people there.

There will not be any charges for customers or merchants to avail of this service and the withdrawal limit for customers will be the same as the limit set by their respective banks. The new kind of digital ATM service will help people in withdrawing money without the usage of ATM card and also help people to properly locate a nearby venue for withdrawing cash.

13th Jaipur Literature Festival to begin

January 23, 2020

13th Jaipur Literature Festival will be held from 23th to 27th January. The themes of the festival include climate, constitution, poetry, and artificial intelligence. The five-day event will see more than 200 sessions. Around 500 speakers of different fields are expected to participate in the festival, out of which 120 are award-winning speakers.

The festival will have a range of speakers including Nobel laureate Abhijit Banerjee, Booker award-winning British novelist Howard Jacobson and Auther Elizabeth Gilbert. 37 sessions will be held on the first day, which includes speakers such as Nandita Das, Subha Mudgal and Prasoon Joshi among others.

Mansukh Mandaviya participates at UNAIDS Programme in WEF

January 23, 2020

The Union Minister of State for Shipping and Chemical & Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya participated in the High-level roundtable of The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) at World Economic Forum at Davos, Switzerland on 21 January 2020. The theme of the programme was ‘Access for all: Leveraging Innovations, Investments, and Partnerships for Health’. 

The officials discussed the health needs that are to be accessible for all and innovative technologies and solutions can play a key role, including in bridging economic inequalities. Mansukh Mandaviya mentioned Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana and Ayushman Bharat aiming to Affordable Quality Healthcare for all. He also described various schemes initiated by the GoI under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi.

Uttarakhand – 1st state to implement agricultural land leasing policy

January 23, 2020

Uttarakhand  has become the first state in the country where the government has made a policy to lease agricultural land. In lieu of giving land on a 30-year lease, the concerned farmer will get the rent for the land.

In the hilly areas of the state, the obstacles of leasing land for farming, agriculture, horticulture, herbs, off-season vegetables, milk production, tea plantation, fruit hybridization and solar energy has been removed with this step.

There is a provision to take more land in special circumstances. If there is government land around farm land, then it can be leased by paying the fee with the permission of the District Magistrate. The state government has made this policy in the wake of difficulties in the consolidation of land.

India’s growth forecast for FY-20 lowered to 5.7% by UN

January 23, 2020

The UN projects India’s economy to grow by 5.7 percent in the current fiscal year and expects it to rise to 6.6 percent in the next fiscal year. The UN growth estimate for the current fiscal is drastically lower than the forecast of 7.6 per cent made in last year’s report in January and 7 percent in the May update.

The head of UN’s Global Economic Monitoring Branch, Dawn Holland, told IANS that although there has been a steep decline in growth, India was still one of the high performers globally. He said that it was expected to improve its growth rate in the coming year because of the steps being taken.

According to the report, only China has a higher growth rate than India among the world’s large economies with a 6 per cent forecast for the current calendar year.

‘Cardless cash withdrawal’ introduced by ICICI Bank

January 23, 2020

ICICI Bank has rolled out “Cardless Cash Withdrawal” service through ATM having a per day transaction limit of Rs 20,000. This service enables customers to withdraw cash from over 15,000 ATMs of the bank without using a debit card 24×7. They can withdraw cash by simply raising a request on iMobile, a mobile banking application.

Speaking on the launch, Executive Director of ICICI Bank Anup Bagchi said the bank will continue to focus on innovations in technology at all channels and touch-points that will bring more convenience to the customers. The bank’s consolidated total assets stood at Rs 12,88,190 crore at September 30, 2019. It is present across 15 countries.

NPCI Vajra, blockchain-based platform launched

January 23, 2020

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has launched the Vajra Platform to make payments fast and secure. Based on blockchain technology, the primary highlight of the Vajra Platform is that it automates clearing and settlement of payments, drastically reducing the need for manual reconciliation.

The Vajra Platform uses distributed ledger technology (DLT). It uses a permissions model to ensure that only approved parties are a part of the network. Payment companies can apply to be a part of the network. Once approved, they can deploy the platform using an application programming interface (API) that will be provided by NPCI.

Join Now

Whatsapp Telegram Facebook Twitter

All In One Current Affairs

One Stop solution for all Current Affairs
Most Popular
National Static GK

State-Wise Static GK

International Static GK
CM and Gov of all States(Updated)
Banks HQ, MD/CEO, Tagline
Capital,Currency, PM, President of all countries (Updated)
GDP prediction by various Org.(Updated)