Coal India subsidiary (NCL) sets up “SARAS”

NATIONAL NEWS

India ranked 2^nd in the production of crude steel.

• Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister of Steel Dharmendra Pradhan said that India became the 2^nd largest producer of crude steel for the year 2019, by replacing japan.
• India moved its crude steel productivity from 109.3 million tonnes (2018) to 111.2 million tonnes (2019).
• China remains at the top position with 996.3 million tonnes, US and Russia ranks the 4^th and 5^th positions respectively.

International Gandhi award for leprosy

• The president of India, Ramnath Kovind presented the international Gandhi award for leprosy to Dr.N.S .Dharmashaktu for the year 2019.
• The award was given under the Indian nomination (individual) category and the Leprosy Mission Trust under the institutional category.

Sri lankan PM visit to India.

• The prime minister of sri lanka has arrived at New Delhi airport on a 5day visit to India, he was received by Minister of State for Human Resources Development Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre.
• Discussions are to be made on the Sri Lanka-India annual defence dialogue and the trilateral maritime security cooperation with India and the Maldives.
• PM of Sri lanka: Mahinda Rajapaksa

Commercial flight operation in Bidar airport in Karnataka begins.

• Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has kick started the first direct flight from Bidar airport to Bengaluru in Karnataka.
• The Regional Connectivity Scheme-Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (RCS-UDAN) of the Government of India has remodeled and developed the airport at an estimated cost of ₹11 cr by the state government with the help of central government.
• This direct daily flights on the Bengaluru-Bidar route will be operated by TruJet.
• Chief minister of Karnataka: B.S. Yediyurappa

Coal India subsidiary (NCL) sets up “SARAS”

• Coal India’s subsidiary NCL (Northern Coalfields Limited) has set up a Centre named “Science and Applied Research Alliance and Support(SARAS)”.
• The Centre was started to promote Innovation, Research & Development and skill development along with improving company’s operational efficiency and utilize resources at optimum level.
• NCL accounts for 15% of India’s coal production and 10% of thermal power generation of the country is met by the coal produced by the Miniratna Company of Govt. of India
• Northern coalfields limited CMD:  Shri Prabhat Kumar Sinha.

DefExpo 2020: DRDO handed over 15 licenses to 17 industries.

• DRDO handed over 15 licenses for ToT (LATOT) to 17 industries on DRDO developed technologies at the DefExpo 2020, during the MoU singing ceremony named as” Bandhan”.
• This will develop cooperation between industries and Governmental organisations.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

Karen pierce was appointed as the next ambassador to US from Britain.

• Britain appointed its UN envoy Karen pierce as the next ambassador to US.

Al-Qaeda leader Qasim al-Rimi in counter terrorism operation in Yemen.

• US president Donald Trump has confirmed the major counter terrorism operation in Yemen where it killed al-Qaeda leader Qasim al-Rimi.
• The AQAP, considered as the most powerful branch of al-Qaeda's for its attempts to carry out attacks on the US mainland.
• This is considered as the 3^rd major strike by the trump administration, while they killed ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani earlier.

ECONOMIC AFFAIRS

WhatsApp gets approval from NPCL

• The National Payments Corporation Limited of India(NPCL) has granted permission to the Facebook –owned messaging service WhatsApp to launch its digital payment platform “WhatsApp pay”.

Financial literacy week 2020

• The financial literacy week will be conducted by RBI from 10^th to 14^th of February 2020.
• The theme of the programme is “Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises”.
• The main aim of the financial literacy week 2020 is to update the people about formalization, collateral free loan, discounting of receivables, rehabilitation of stressed units and timely repayments.

U.K court directs Anil Ambani to pay $100 MN.

• A U.K government asks the reliance group chairman Anil Ambani to pay $100mn.
• The action is towards a conditional order granted to three Chinese banks pursuing the recovery of over $680 mn owed to them as a part of a loan agreement.

Bank of India and SBI to cut interest rates

• The country’s largest lending banks BOI and SBI have reduced their lending rates by cutting the marginal cost of fund-based lending rate(MCLR).
• This action was followed from the RBI announcing their measures to ease interest rates.
• SBI reduced the MCLR by 5bps across all maturities, the one year MCLR comes down to 7.85% per annum from 7.90%.
• Bank of India reduced the MCLR by 10 bps for maturities upto 6 months.

SPORTS NEWS

Raju Bharatan passes away

• Legendary film historian and cricket journalist Raju Bharatan passed away.
• He was associated with the illustrated weekly of India. He was also a popular radio commentator for India’s cricket matches across the world.

SAI and hockey India launches high performance hockey centers.

• Sports authority of India(SAI) and hockey India jointly announced the launching of high performance hockey centres in 7 places across the country.
• The main aim of this move is to train young talent in view of 2024 and 2028 Olympic Games.