Daily GK Updates - 6th April, 2018

NATIONAL UPDATES

1. Delhi and Maharashtra top in the list of Hospitality Index by Airbnb: Global hospitality chain Airbnb announced that New Delhi and Maharashtra have been recognised as the most hospitable city and state respectively, according to its Hospitality Index. As per the index, the most hospitable states were Maharashtra, Goa, Delhi, Karnataka and Kerala. New Delhi led the charts as the most hospitable city in the country, followed closely by Jaipur, Cochin and Mumbai.

2. “Van Dhan Vikas Kendra” at Bijapur launched: The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has approved establishment of the first multipurpose “Van Dhan Vikas Kendra” on the pilot basis for establishment in Bijapur  District of Chhattisgarh. The Kendra will provide skill and capacity building training and setting up of primary processing facility. The Kendra will have processing facility for Tamarind brick making & Mahua flower storage facility.

3. Ministry of Coal launched UTTAM APP: Ministry of Coal launched ‘UTTAM App’ for Coal Quality Monitoring. UTTAM stands for – Unlocking Transparency by Third Party Assessment of Mined Coal (uttam.coalindia.in). The Ministry of Coal and Coal India Limited (CIL) developed UTTAM, aims to provide an App for all citizens and coal consumers to monitor the process of Third Party Sampling of coal across CIL subsidiaries.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES

1. India, Azerbaijan sign two documents: India and Azerbaijan have inked two documents for the visa waiver for diplomatic, official and service passports holders and cooperation between diplomatic training institutes. The agreements were signed during the ongoing visit of External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to that country. Mrs Swaraj is there to be part of 18th NAM Ministerial Conference in Baku.

OTHER UPDATES

BUSINESS / ECONOMY:

1. Sanjeev Nautiyal is the MD & CEO of SBI Life: SBI Life Insurance Company Limited appointed Sanjeev Nautiyal as its new MD and CEO. Sanjeev Nautiyal started his career with State Bank of India in 1985 as a probationary officer in bank’s Lucknow circle. In the immediately preceding assignment, he was the Chief General Manager of the bank’s Ahmedabad circle.

BANKING / FINANCE:

1. Monetary Policy Review: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on 5th April kept the repo rate and reverse repo rate unchanged at 6 percent and 5.75 percent respectively. The real Gross Domestic Product growth in FY19 is seen at 7.4 percent as against 6.6 percent in FY18. The RBI revised CPI inflation projection for 2018-19 to 4.7-5.1% in the first half of the financial year and 4.4% in the second half.

2. RBI bars banks from crypto-currency related services: RBI directed all regulated entities including banks not to provide services to businesses dealing in virtual currencies like bitcoins, so as to protect consumers and check money laundering. The RBI asked entities, which are already into such services to stop providing this kind of services within three months. The RBI has directed all payment system operators to store all data within India.

3. RBI defers implementation of Indian Accounting Standards adoption by 1 year: The Reserve Bank of India has deferred the adoption of ‘Indian Accounting Standards’ (Ind AS) by banks, for a year, due to the unpreparedness of banks to migrate to the new accounting system. The earlier deadline for banks to switch to the Ind AS was from 1 April 2018. Ind-AS is a global accounting practice that lenders are mandated to adopt that may lead to initial credit losses.

4. RBI decides to set up Data Sciences Lab: Reserve Bank of India has decided to set up Data Sciences Lab to improve its forecasting, surveillance and early warning detection abilities which will aid policy formulation. RBI said the lab will comprise experts and budding analysts, who are trained in Computer Science, Data Analytics, Statistics, Economics, Econometrics and Finance. The unit will become operational by December 2018.

SPORTS:

1. Weightlifter Deepak Lather wins bronze medal at CWG: Indian weightlifter Deepak Lather won the bronze medal in the men’s 69 kg category on the Day 2 of the Commonwealth Games. Gareth Evans of Wales claimed gold medal while Sri Lanka’s Indika won the silver medal. India till now has four medals at the Gold Coast Games and all four have come from weightlifting.

2. Sanjita Chanu won gold medal at CWG 2018: Weightlifter Khumukcham Sanjita Chanu won India its second gold medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games by outshining in the women’s 53 kg category event. She set a new record in the game by lifting a total of 192 kgs which includes 84 kgs in a snatch and 108 kgs in clean and jerk.