NATIONAL NEWS
VP releases commemorative postage stamp in memory of former Chief of Brahma Kumaris Rajyogini Dadi JankiVice President M Venkaiah Naidu released a commemorative postage stamp in the memory of former Chief of Brahma Kumaris Rajyogini Dadi Janki in New Delhi.
- Naidu said that Dadi Janaki dedicated her life to serving humanity. She devoted her entire life to women's empowerment, unity, brotherhood and human values in society.
Minister for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Dr Jitendra Singh launched 75 series Pension awareness to mark 75 years of India’s independence.
- As a part of the Amrut Mahotsav, the Department of Pension and Pensioners Welfare will organize a wide range of activities.
- It will be a highly innovative and creative method of observing the 75th year of India's independence by dedicating it to the cause of pensioners and elder citizens.
Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has sanctioned road development projects of 291 km worth 726 cr for the state of Madhya Pradesh," Road Transport, Highways and MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari said.
- These projects include preparation of detailed project reports for upgradation of declared National Highway (572 Km) at a cost of 17.72 crore besides strengthening of road section of Sagar-Chhatarpur on NH 86/934 at a cost of 22.65 crore.
The government said it has approved Rs 128.66 crore worth of highway projects in Goa. The eight projects are for building 39.7 km of highways in the state.
- One of the projects is for four-laning of existing 2-lane section of Ribandar bypass of NH-748 (Old NH-4A) in the state with a budget Rs 53.27 crore.
- Other projects include strengthening sections of Panjim - Mangalore highway on NH-66 with a budget Rs 44.8 crore.
Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik launched 14-day 'mask abhiyan' as part of efforts to prevent the spread of coronavirus in view of rising cases and urged people to strictly follow the safety guidelines.
- Bringing an amendment to the Odisha Covid-19 Regulations under the Epidemic Diseases Act-1897, the state government said that those who do not use mask properly in public places, will henceforth have to cough up 2000 rupees for violations for the first and second time and 5,000 rupees for the subsequent violations.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
China Opens 5G Signal Station at World's Highest Radar Location Near Tibet BorderChina has opened a 5G signal base at the Ganbala radar station in the remote Himalayan region of Tibet which is the world's highest manually operated radar station at an elevation of 5,374 meters.
- The mountain is located in Nagarze County in Tibet which is in the vicinity of borders with India and Bhutan.
- The stable and high-speed 5G signal enables the soldiers in the deep mountains to keep up with the information society, leaving the monotonous and boring life on the border.
The United Arab Emirates named the next two astronauts in the country’s space program. It also includes the country’s first female astronaut, Noura al-Matroushi.
- Al-Maktoum identified Noura al-Matroushi as the first female astronaut of UAE with her male counterpart, Mohammed al-Mulla. The two will be undergoing training at Johnson Space center of NASA in Houston, Texas.
BANKING & FINANCE
IMF policy panel endorses USD 650 billion increase in resourcesThe International Monetary Fund has authorised a USD 650 billion expansion of the 190-nation lending institution's resources with the aim of providing more support for vulnerable countries as they battle the coronavirus pandemic.
- The USD 650 billion increase in reserves is the largest in IMF history.
- The move will provide badly needed reserves for poor countries struggling with deep recessions caused by the pandemic and the need to obtain and administer millions of doses of vaccines.
Several banks, including the State Bank of India (SBI), have been imposing excessive charges on certain services provided to poor persons having zero-balance or Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts (BSBDA), a study by the IIT-Bombay has revealed.
- The study observed that the SBI's decision to levy a charge of Rs 17.70 for every debit transaction beyond four by the BSBDA account holders cannot be considered as “reasonable.”
- It highlighted that the imposition of service charges resulted in undue collections to the tune of over Rs 300 crore from among nearly 12 crore Basic Savings Bank Deposit Account (BSBDA) holders of SBI during the period 2015-20.
- India's second-largest public sector lender Punjab National Bank, which has 3.9 crore BSBD accounts, collected Rs 9.9 crore during the same period.
State-run banks will focus on co-lending with non-banking firms, digital agriculture financing, synergies and technological resilience for 24x7 banking as part of their reforms agenda for this fiscal, Ease 4.0.
- This year PSBs will focus to introduce and promote new analytics-based offers to existing retail customers like pre-approved car loans, EMI offers on ecommerce purchases and also for existing MSME customers.
- Such offers will be based on bank transactions, income tax and GST returns, transactions on e-commerce portals, and other operational data.
Bank credit grew 5.56 per cent to Rs 109.51 lakh crore, while deposits rose 11.4 per cent to Rs 151.13 lakh crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2021, data released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.
- In the 2019-20 fiscal, advances had grown at 6.1 per cent and deposits at 7.9 per cent.
- Though the interest rates of banks have reduced by 107 basis points from February 2020 to February 2021, the overall credit growth continued to moderate due to risk aversion and continued parking of excess liquidity with the RBI.
BUSINESS & ECONOMY
FDI equity inflows up 28% to $54.18 billion during April-JanuaryFDI equity inflows into the country during April-January 2020-21 grew by 28% to $54.18 billion, according to the Commerce and Industry Ministry data released.
- Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows during April-January 2019-20 stood at $42.34 billion. Total FDI (which includes reinvested earnings) during the 10-month period in FY21 increased by 15% to $72.12 billion over the year-ago period.It is the highest ever for the first ten months of a financial year.
- In terms of top investor countries, Singapore is at the top with 30.28% of the total FDI equity inflow followed by the US (24.28%) and the UAE (7.31%).
- Computer software and hardware has emerged as the top sector during the first ten months of 2020-21 with 45.81% of the total inflows. It was followed by construction (infrastructure) activities (13.37%) and services sector (7.80%) respectively.
Global brokerage company Nomura has cut India's GDP forecast to 12.6 per cent from 13.5 per cent forecast earlier as the country faces a consistent rise in coronavirus cases and higher inflation. Nomura has pegged the calendar year GDP growth at 11.5 per cent, a decline from 12.4 per cent estimated earlier.
- In its latest report, 'India: Standing tall amid second wave', Nomura has said the revision in GDP forecast reflected the impact the Covid-19 wave could have on the economy.
- In its report released earlier this month, Nomura had said India's GDP growth could fall to 12.2 per cent if Covid-19 cases continue to rise.
Retail inflation rose to 5.52 per cent in March, mainly on account of higher food prices, government data showed.
- The consumer price index (CPI) based retail inflation stood at 5.03 per cent in February.
- The rate of price rise in the food basket accelerated to 4.94 per cent in March, as against 3.87 per cent in the preceding month, as per data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
- Inflation in ‘fuel and light’ category was 4.50 per cent during the month vis-a-vis 3.53 per cent in February.
APPOINTMENTS
Pramerica Life Insurance appoints Kalpana Sampat as MD, CEOGurugram-based Pramerica Life Insurance has named Kalpana Sampat as its new Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer.
- Her appointment will be effective from April 09, 2021. Prior to the new role, she was the Chief Operating Officer of the firm.
President Ram Nath Kovind has appointed Sushil Chandra, the senior-most Election Commissioner, as the Chief Election Commissioner of India.
- He will succeed Sunil Arora who demitted office.
- Before his appointment to the Election Commission, he was the chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes CBDT.
AWARDS
Indian Army Officer Bharat Pannu Breaks 2 Guinness World RecordsIndian Army's Lieutenant Colonel Bharat Pannu has earned two Guinness World Records for his fastest solo cycling feats from October last year.
- The first record was created when Lt Col Pannu cycled from Leh to Manali (472 km distance) on October 10, 2020, in just 35 hours and 25 minutes.
- Lt Col Pannu created a second record when he cycled the 5,942-km-long 'Golden Quadrilateral' route, which connectsDelhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, in 14 days, 23 hours and 52 minutes.
Acclaimed filmmaker Guneet Monga will be conferred with the honour of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans I’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres), the second highest civilian French honour.
- The BAFTA nominee is among the first producers from India to be inducted in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
- She is the founder of Sikhya Entertainment that has been at the helm of pushing content-driven cinema with films like The Lunchbox, Masaan, What will people say, Soorarai Pottaru, Haramkhor, Peddlers and Oscar Winning Short Film Documentary – Period, End of Sentence.
CRMNEXT has been recognized as the 'Dream Company to work for' and the Best IT Employer in Platform as a Service (PaaS) category by the Times Ascent at World HRD Congress 2021.
- CRMNEXT is a leading global banking and insurance digital transformation and customer experience platform.
- It has to its credit the largest banking CRM implementation globally with over a million bankers and a billion customers managed on its platform
OBITUARIES
Eminent Historian Yogesh Praveen passes awayEminent Historian and an expert on Awadh especially Lucknow Yogesh Praveen died in Lucknow this afternoon. He was 82.
- Awarded with Padma Shri in 2019 he had a long association with All India Radio Lucknow also.
- Through his books and articles, he enabled the public to know about the rich heritage and culture of Avadh.
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