Daily GK Updates - 5th June, 2018

NATIONAL UPDATES:

1.India among top 5 in e-waste generation : India is among the top five e-waste generating countries in the world besides China, the US, Japan and Germany, according to a report.Among states, Maharashtra contributes the largest e-waste of 19.8% but recycles only about 47,810 tonne per annum (TPA), the report released by Assocham and NEC.Tamil Nadu with e-waste contribution of 13% recycled about 52,427 TPA

2.Tamil Nadu to ban on disposable plastic from 2019 : Tamil Nadu government announced a ban on manufacture, sales, storage and usage of disposable plastic across State with effective from January 1, 2019.However, the ban excludes using disposable plastic for packaging milk, curd, oil and medical utilities.

The ban was primarily on plastic carry bags, plastic plates, plastic cups, plastic flags, small plastic sachets used in packaging water.

3. NBFC for food processing sector : Food Processing Ministry will soon create its new financial institution which will exclusively fund food processing projects and create capacity building in the field of risk assessment and lending to food processing sector.The Agro-Processing Financial Institution will be a non-banking financial institution.The government is likely to hold a minority stake in this NBFC.

4. Heli-taxis between Shimla-Chandigarh : Himachal Pradesh CM Jairam Thakur flagged off a helicopter taxi service that will reduce the travel time between Shimla and Chandigarh to 20 minutes.The service, operated by Pawan Hans, can accommodate 19 persons and will charge ₹2,999 per person.The government is also planning to start heli-taxi service between Chandigarh and Manali and sortie service from Manali to the Rohtang Pass.

INTERNATIONAL UPDATES:

1. World Environment Day 2018 : World Environment Day is the UN’s most important day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment.World Environment Day is the “people’s day” for doing something to take care of the Earth.The theme for the World Environment Day 2018 is “Beat Plastic Pollution”.Every World Environment Day has a different global host country. This year it is India

2. India, US, Japan to begin naval war game : India and its two strategic partners — the US and Japan — will hold the Malabar naval exercise from next week off the coast of Guam in the Philippine Sea.It will aim to deepen cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region where China has been expanding its military footprint.Malabar is a trilateral naval exercise involving the United States, Japan and India as permanent partners.

OTHER UPDATES:

BUSINESS/ECONOMY:

1. Centre to start measuring green GDP of States : The government will begin a five-year exercise to compute district-level data of the country’s environmental wealth. The numbers will eventually be used to calculate every State’s ‘green’ Gross Domestic Product (GDP).The metric will help with a range of policy decisions, such as compensation to be paid during land acquisition, calculation of funds required for climate mitigation, and so on.

2. Telangana, LIC sign MoU for life insurance : Telangana government and the LIC signed a MoU for the implementation of a Rs five lakh life insurance scheme for the benefit of farmers in the state.The scheme will be implemented from August 15.

The agriculture department alone would implement the scheme and the AEOs (Agriculture Extension Officers) should get the insurance papers filled up by farmers before August 15.

BANKING/FINANCE:

1. Fitch downgrades PNB on credit profile : Fitch Ratings has downgraded the Viability Rating (VR) of Punjab National Bank to ‘b’ from ‘bb-’ and maintained negative ratings.The two-notch downgrade is a reflection of the significant deterioration in its standalone credit profile.Fitch said the deterioration in its core capitalisation was caused by a sharp increase in its non-performing loans (NPLs).

2. Mahesh Kumar appointed as Dy Governor of RBI : Mahesh Kumar Jain has been appointed as Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India for a term of three years.Presently, he is the Managing Director and CEO of IDBI Bank.Before his role in IDBI, Jain was the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Indian Bank.As per the RBI Act, the central bank should have four deputy governors.