Current Affairs: January 3rd, 2018

January 3rd, 2018.

1.No Charges on the debit card, BHIM app and other payments made up to Rs.2,000: Finance Ministry.

• The government will bear the merchant discount rate (MDR) charges for 2yrs with effect from Jan 1st,2018 by reimbursing the same to banks.
• Static Part:1. BHIM is a mobile app developed by National Payments Corporation of India, based on the Unified Payment Interface.
  2.Union Finance Minister of India: Arun Jaitley.

2.Pakistan state bank allows the use of Chinese currency Yuan for Bilateral Trade and Investment activities.

• Static Part:1. China:- Capital-Beijing|Currency-Yuan|President- Xi Jinping |PM- Li Keqiang.
  2.Pakistan:-Capital-Islamabad|Currency-rupee|PM-Shahid Khaqan Abbasi|President-Mamnoon Hussain.

3.Parliament passes (NABARD) National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

• The Bill allows the union govt. to increase the authorized capital of the Bank from Rs. 5,000 crores to Rs. 30,000 crores.
• Static Part: NABARD:- Founded:12 July 1982|Headquarters: Mumbai|Chairman: Harsh Kumar Bhanwala.

4.G Sathiyan has become India’s highest ranked player in the latest international table tennis federation (ITTF) rankings.

• He Surpasses his compatriot the legendary Sharath Kamal.

5.The State Bank of India has reduced the base rate and benchmark prime lending rates (BPLR) by 30 basis points each.

• Base rate has been reduced to 8.65%  for existing customers from 8.95%, while the benchmark prime lending rates are been reduced from 13.7%  to 13.4%.
• Static Part: SBI Chairman -Rajnish kumar| Headquarters – Mumbai|Some Taglines Of SBI- “Pure banking, nothing else” “With you- all the way” “A bank of the common man” “The banker to every Indian”.

6.Government appoints Rajinder Khanna as Deputy National Security Advisor.

• He is the former chief of the country’s external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).

7.Nagaland has been declared as “disturbed area” under AFSPA (Armed forces special powers act) for 6 more months.

• AFSPA empowers security forces to conduct operations anywhere and arrest anyone without any prior notice.
• Static Part: Nagaland: Capital- Kohima|CM-T. R. Zeliang|Governor- Padmanabha Balakrishna Acharya|Intanki National park is in Nagaland.

 

8.According to an HSBC report, India’s GDP growth rate at 6.5% in FY2018, will accelerate to 7.6% in FY2019-2020.

• Static Part: HSBC:- Headquarters -London, UK |CEO-Stuart Gulliver.

9.Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das has launched a programme called “Saubhagya Yojana”.

• This would provide electricity to all the 29,376 villages in the state.
• Static Part: Jharkhand: Capital- Ranchi | Governor- Draupadi Murmu |It has Betla National park.