CURRENT AFFAIRS ( 4th APRIL )
Shankar School of Banking
April 4 , 2019
187
NATIONAL NEWS
- Bureau of Indian standards (BIS) and IIT Delhi signed MOU
- To collaborate in field of Standardisation and conformity assessment
- It will enable setting up a centre of Excellence in the field of Standardisation, Testing and conformity Assessment with branding at IIT-Delhi, also appointing a chair in field of Standardisation and conformity assessment.
- Indian Army constructed longest suspension bridge
- Built over Indus River at choglamsar village in Leh (260-feet long), in just 40 days, named Maitri. It will provide connectivity to remote areas of Ladakh and help residents of largest villages in Ladakh.
ECONOMY AND FINANCIAL AWARENESS
- RBI’s 1st Bi-monthly Monetary Policy Review for 2019-206 Member policy Committee is chaired by RBI Governor Shaktikandas Das.
- RBI reduced 0.25 basis points in policy Rates under liquidity adjustment facility(LAF).
- Repo rate-6%
- Reverse report-5.75%
- Bank rate-6.25%
- CRR (Cash Reserve ratio)-4%
- SLR (Statutory Liquidity ratio)-19.25% (RBI decided to reduce SLR from 18.0% in Six Quarterly instalments beginning January 2019)
- Marginal Standing Facility (MSF)-6.25%
- RBI also projected GDP growth forecast for current fiscal at 7.2%, down from earlier estimate 7.4%.
Fitch Ratings
Fitch Ratings Kept India’s Sovereign rating at lowest investment grade of BBB-with a stable outlook, unchanged for 13th straight year. Growth rate of Indian forecasted by Fitch is 6.8% in FY 2019-20 and 7.1% in FY 2020-21. Fitch had upgraded India’s sovereign rating from BB+ to BBB- with a stable outlook on August 1, 2006.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
South Korea Launched 5G Mobile networks
- The first provider of superfast technology in the world. Three Top telecom Providers-Sk Telecom, KT, and LG plus- began their 5G services. 5G will bring smartphones near-instantaneous connectivity, 20 times faster than existing 4G.