DAILY CURRENT AFFAIRS 4-01-2022

Shankar School of Banking January 4 , 2022 267

NATIONAL

 

100 days Reading Campaign launched

  • The Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has launched a 100 reading campaingn-“Padhe Bharat”.
  • To ensure the availability of age appropriate reading books for children in local/mother tongue/regional/tribal Language, the 100 days Reading Campaign was launched in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP)  2020 .
  • Padhe Bharat campaign will focus on children studying below the age of 5 to Grade 8, The reading campaign will be organised for 100 days (14 weeks) starting from 1st January 2022 to 10th April 2022.
  • The reading campaign aims to have participation of all stakeholders at national and state level including children, teachers, parents, community, educational administrators etc, This campaign has also been aligned with the vision and goals of foundational Literacy and Numeracy mission.
  • The 100 days reading campaign will also focus on Indian languages including mother tongue/local/regional languages, So it has been integrated International Mother Tongue Day.
  • This day will be celebrated with the activity of Kahani Padho Apni Bhasa Main (Reading story in own language) across the country by encouraging children to read in their mother tongue/local language. This will help in promoting local language and culture of our society.

 

Two new plants discovered

  • Two new plants varioeties has been discovered in the Western Ghats regions at Trivandrum and Wayanad by the Researchers from M.S Swaminathan Research Foundation, SNM College and Payyanur College.
  • One of the Plant have been named as Fimbristylis sunilii, named after plant taxonomist C.N. Sunil, While another new variety was named Neanotis prabhuii, named after K.M. Prabhukumar, Senior Scientist at CSIR-NBRI.
  • The two new varieties have been categorised as data deficient under the IUCN red list categories.
  • Fimbristylis sunilii- It 20-60cm tall perennial plant belonging to the Cyperaceae family, It was found at the grasslands of Ponmudi.
  • Neanotis prabhuii- It is a prostrate perennial plant which grows upto 70cm, It has flowers with pink petals.

 

INTERNATIONAL

 

Longest Metro network in the world

  • Shanghai, a city in China has added two more driverless lines-Line 14 and Phase one of Line 18 and has maintained the position as the city with largest metro network in the world.
  • The Total length of the Shanghai’s metro network has extended to 831km along with the newly added network, The city also has 5 driverless metro lines.
  • The city now has a total of 508 stations,
  • The Second position of the largest network of metro is maintained by Beijing with a total length of 780km.
  • Many other Metro lines in Shanghai have unofficial nicknames, like Line 10 that is known as the ‘Golden Line’ for it connects some major tourist attractions of Yuyuan Garden, Xintiandi, East Nanjing Road. Line 6 has been named ‘Hello Kitty Lane’ for its pinkish livery.

China Capital-Beijing

Chinese President- Xi Jinping

Chinese Currency-Yuan

 

New Presidency for the council of the European Union

  • France has now assumed the presidency of the council of the European Union with effect from Jan 1, 2022 for the next six months till June 30, 2022.
  • The presidency of the EU changes every six months among the member states of the 27-nation bloc,
  • France has now assumed the presidency from Czech Republic.
  • France has given the motto of “recovery, Strength, Belonging”.

France Capital-Paris

France President-Emmanuel Macron

France Currency- Euro

 

 

BANKING AND FINANCE

 

RBI approves Fino Payment Bank

  • The Reserve Bank of India has approved Fino Payments Bank for commencing international remittance business under the Money Transfer Service Scheme (MTSS).
  • The bank will be undertaking inward cross-border money transfer activities in association with an overseas principal, the details of which are being worked out.
  • The customer segment of Fino Bank at the middle of the pyramid is targeted to families of many of the people working in foreign countries.
  • The money remitted by family members abroad can now be directly withdrawn at the nearest micro-ATM or Aadhaar-Enabled Payment Services (AEPS) enabled Fino Bank’s neighbourhood merchant point.
  • Fino merchants provide services such as new account opening, cash deposit, money transfer, cash withdrawal via micro-ATMs or AEPS mechanisms, collect cash on behalf of various institutional clients among others.
  • As a new offering international remittance will help augment income of merchants and the bank leading to strengthening of Fino’s robust distribution network.

Fino Payments Bank CEO- Rishi Gupta

Headquartres- Mumbai, Maharastra.

 

SBI tiesup with Paytm

  • SBI cards and Payment services has joined hands with Paytm for card tokenisation to protect data of the cardholders.
  • SBI Card has collaborated with Paytm to enable cardholders to tokenise their cards on devices and make payments through Paytm.
  • Tokenisation refers to masking the original card number by replacing it with a set of unique characters, termed as token, which secures the customer’s card details when a transaction is under process.

SBI Chairman-Dinesh Kumar Khara`

 

Interest rate on Small Savings scheme Retained

  • Ministry of Finance has retained the Interest rate for Small Savings scheme unchanged for the 4th quarter, including National Savings Certificate(NSC) and Public Provident Fund(PPF) in the FY2021-22.
  • National Savings Certificate(NSC) and Public Provident Fund(PPF) will continue with 7.1% and 6.8%.
  • This move comes amid the increase cases of Omicron Variant and elevated level of Inflation.
  • Term deposits of one to five years will fetch interest rate in the range of 5.5-6.7%, to be paid quarterly, while the interest rate on five-year recurring deposits will earn a higher interest of 5.8%.
  • Uttar Pradesh is the second highest contributor to the small savings schemes after West Bengal.
  • One-year term deposit scheme will continue to earn an interest rate of 5.5%, while the girl child savings scheme Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana account will earn 7.6%.
  • Term deposits of one to five years will fetch interest rate in the range of 5.5-6.7%, to be paid quarterly, while the interest rate on five-year recurring deposits will earn a higher interest of 5.8%.
  • Interest rate on savings deposits will continue to be 4% per annum.

 

SPORTS AND AWARDS

 

PM lays foundation stone of Major Dhyan Chand Sports University

  • Prime minsister Narendra Modi has laid foundation stone to the Major Dhayan Chand sports University in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
  • The University will be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs 700 Crore at the Villages of Sardhana town in Meerut.
  • The University can hold 1080 sportspersons, including male and female sportsperson.
  • The Sports University will be equipped with modern and state-of-the-art sports infrastructure including synthetic Hockey ground, Football ground, Basketball, Volleyball, Handball, Kabaddi ground, Lawn tennis court, Gymnasium hall, Synthetic running stadium, Swimming pool, Multipurpose hall, and a Cycling Velodrome.
  • It will also house facilities for Shooting, Squash, Gymnastics, Weightlifting, Archery, Canoeing, and Kayaking, among other facilities with the capacity of training.

Union Youth Affairs and Sports Minister-Anurag Thakur.

 

 

APPOINTMENTS

 

New Chairman and CEO of Railway Board appointed

Vinay Kumar Tripathi has been appointed as the new Chairman CEO of Railway Board.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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