February 8th, 2018
1. First-ever Pelican Festival held at Atapaka Bird Sanctuary in Andhra Pradesh.
- Andhra Pradesh government has held the first-of-its-kind, one-day Pelican Festival at the Atapaka Bird Sanctuary on Kolleru lake. Kolleru is one of the largest freshwater lakes in the country.
- Officials made elaborate arrangements to attract tourists for the ‘Pakshula Panduga’ at Atapaka village, located on the borders of the Krishna and the West Godavari districts.
- Static Part: Andhra Pradesh:- Chief Minister-Nara Chandrababu Naidu|Governor- E. S. L. Narasimhan|Kuchipudi is the famous Dance Form of AP.
2. RBI to link base rate with MCLR from 1st April 2018 to ensure expeditious transmission of its policy rate to borrowers.
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said it will link the base rate for loans with the marginal cost of funds-based lending rate (MCLR) from 1 April to improve monetary policy transmission.
- According to the RBI Deputy Governor NS Vishwanathan, it has been decided to harmonize the methodology of determining benchmark rates by linking base rate to MCLR as it is more sensitive to policy rate signals.
- This is likely to narrow the gap between the base rate and MCLR, and benefit borrowers who are still using the base rate.
- Static Part: 1. Dr. Urjit Patel is the 24th Governor of RBI|RBI Headquarters in Mumbai.
2. The base rate is the minimum rate set by the Reserve Bank of India below which banks are not allowed to lend to its customers. The Base Rate was introduced by RBI in the year 2010.
3.Difference B/W Base Rate & marginal cost of funds based lending rate (MCLR).BASE RATE MCLR RATE Margin is separately calculated Margin is part of the Marginal Cost Of Funds The frequency of revision is once in a quarter. The frequency of revision is monthly. Cost of Fund arrived at based on the cost of old deposits. The marginal cost of funds arrived at based on the Current cost of deposits. Base rate=Marginal Cost of Funds+ Operating Expenses+CRR(Cash Reserve Ratio). MCLR rate=Marginal Cost of Funds+ Operating Expenses+CRR(Cash Reserve Ratio)+Tenor Premium. Base Rate was set by the RBI. MCLR it is set by the Banks or the particular lender.
3. RBI to Set up Ombudsman for addressing customer grievances in the Non-Banking Finance Companies.
- The Reserve Bank of India wants to further tighten the regulations around the Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) by setting up an ombudsman. The rules will be laid out by the end of February 2018.
- RBI will start with deposit-taking NBFCs and widen the scope to cover NBFCs with asset size of Rs 100 crore. There are around 20 banking ombudsmen have been appointed with offices mostly in state capitals.
- However, with an ombudsman in place, the customers can directly file a complaint, as per the RBI guidelines announced during the monetary policy.
4. RBI keeps repo, reverse repo rates unchanged.
- On the basis of an assessment of the current and evolving macroeconomic situation, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decided to keep the policy repo rate under the liquidity adjustment facility (LAF) unchanged at 6.0 percent.
- Consequently, the reverse repo rate under the LAF remains at 5.75 percent, and the marginal standing facility (MSF) rate and the Bank Rate at 6.25 percent.
- The central bank has upped the inflation forecast for the 4th quarter of this fiscal year to 5.1 percent from 4.3 percent to 4.7 percent earlier and to 5.1-5.6 percent in the first half of next year.
- The GVA (gross value added) forecast for FY18 has been revised down to 6.6 percent from 6.7 percent earlier.
- Static Part: Current Monetary Policy Rates:- Repo Rate: 6%|Reverse Repo Rate:5.75%| Marginal Standing Facility (MSF) Rate: 6.25%|Bank Rate: 6.25%|Cash Reserve Ratio: 4%|Statutory Liquidity Ratio (SLR): 19.5%.
5. Bangladesh’s former Prime Minister and Opposition BNP chief Khaleda Zia have been sentenced to five years in jail in a corruption case.
- 72-year-old Zia was sentenced by a special court in the capital, Dhaka, in connection with the embezzlement of 2 lakh 52 thousand US dollars in foreign donations meant for the Zia Orphanage Trust. In the same case, her son Tarique Rahman and four others have been sentenced to 10 years in jail.
- Static Part: Bangladesh:- Capital: Dhaka|Currency: Bangladeshi taka|Prime minister: Sheikh Hasina.
6. Mumbai Dabbawalas has tied up with Paytm Payments Bank to introduce instant payments.
- Paytm Payments Bank, a digital bank which provides zero balance accounts and zero charges on digital transactions, partnered with the Mumbai Dabbawala Association, the pioneers of home-cooked food delivery.
- As part of this association, around 5000 dabbawalas will now be able to collect instant payments for their Dabba service through Paytm QR.
- Additionally, they will also avail an easy access to banking and other financial services by opening their bank accounts with Paytm.
- Static Part: Vijay Shekhar Sharma is the Chairman of the Paytm Payments Bank.
7. Bermuda Becomes the first country in World to Legalize Same-Sex Marriage.
- Bermuda’s governor John Rankin approved a bill reversing the right of gay couples to marry, despite a supreme court ruling last year authorizing same-sex marriage.
- Static Part: Bermuda:- Capital- Hamilton|Currency- Bermudian dollar.
8. The Centre to link driving license with Aadhaar to filter out fake licenses on a real-time basis is under preparation.
- A bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta was informed about it by a court-appointed committee on road safety headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice K S Radhakrishnan.
- This assumes significance as a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra is currently hearing a clutch of petitions challenging the constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme and the enabling 2016 law.
9. Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu Lays Foundation Stone for Rhododendron Park in Tawang district.
- Mr. Khandu also carried out plantation drive of different varieties of Rhodos. Tawang is home to 50+ different varieties of Rhodos.
- Static Part: Arunachal Pradesh:- CM- Prema Khandu|Governor- Brigadier (Rtrd) BD Mishra.
10. National Informatics Centre (NIC) is organizing a three-day National Meet on Grass rootInformatics- VIVID 2018 in New Delhi.
- The Theme for VIVID 2018 is “Cyber Security and Innovation”.
- The three-day event to be held Feb 8-10th will be inaugurated by Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice Shri.Ravi Shankar Prasad in the presence of ShriK.J. Alphons(MoS for Electronics & Information Technology, Tourism) and other esteemed dignitaries at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
11. ISRO sets up 473 Village Resource Centres worth about Rs 18 crores was spent for rural development through satellite technology.
- For the development of rural areas, ISRO established Village Resource Centres (VRCs) on a pilot scale, in association with selected NGOs, Trusts and State Government Departments.
- VRCs have provided various space technology-enabled services such as telehealth care, tele-education, natural resources information, advisories related to agriculture, career guidance to rural students, skill development and vocational training etc.
- Static Part: ISRO:- Headquarters-Bengaluru|Founder- Vikram Sarabhai|Founded-15 August 1969|Director- A. S. Kiran Kumar.
12. HAL Develops First Hawk-i Flight with indigenous Real Time Operating System (RTOS).
- Hawk-i is the first indigenous RTOS developed in India from scratch and certified by Center for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC).
- The RTOS is the system software which provides a standard run-time environment for real-time applications execution in a safe and reliable manner.
- Static Part: HAL Chairman:- T. Suvarna Raju|Headquarters- Bengaluru.
13. The Union Minister of State for Finance & Shipping, Shri Pon. Radhakrishnan inaugurates the Third Global Procurement Summit in New Delhi.
- Mr. Radhakrishnan said that the Government of India attaches great importance to fairness, transparency, and accountability in public procurement and it has raised the citizen’s expectation in terms of efficiency and outcomes of public spending.
- The two-day Summit is being organized by All India Management Association(AIMA), World Bank and the Government of India.
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