Current Affairs - January 6, 2018 Current Affairs

Pakistan Hockey Federation (PHF) appointed former captain Hasan Sardar as the new chief head coach of the national team. Pakistan will appear in three major hockey events this year including the Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and World Cup for the year 2018. Hasan Sardar had won both the World Cup and Olympic hockey gold in his career would be head coach for a two-match series against an International eleven this month.

Maharashtra State Education Minister, Vinod Tawde stated that Maharashtra State Government has decided to form an education board for non-English medium schools. In the first phase, 100 selected Marathi schools will follow the new syllabus.

Nitin Gadkari, the Union Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation, will inaugurate the 2018 ASEAN-India Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) in Singapore on January 6. The theme of the 2-day PBD Convention is "Ancient Route, New Journey: Diaspora in the Dynamic India-ASEAN Partnership". The PBD is celebrated every year to strengthen the engagement of the overseas Indian community with the Government, reconnect them with their roots and celebrate their achievements and contributions.

Kolkata's Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport has become the 5th airport in India having CAT III B landing system runway 01R. It enables flights to land even when visibility is 50 metres with decision height of 15 meters.

Political scientist Gopal Guru has been appointed as the Editor of the Economic and Political Weekly (EPW) by the Sameeksha Trust for a period of five years. Urrently, Professor Guru teaches Political Science at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi. Earlier, he taught at the University of Delhi and the University of Pune.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has addressed the Conference on Transformation of Aspirational Districts at the Dr. Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi on January 5, 2018. During the conference, which is being organized by NITI Aayog, the Prime Minister will interact with officials in-charge of transformation of over 100 backward districts. This event is in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a New India by 2022. Niti Ayaog has identified 115 such districts. It nominated senior government officials as 'Prabhari' officers for each of these districts in November 2017. They will act as a bridge between the Centre and the district and will coordinate efforts between the Centre and states.

Iceland becomes the first country in the world to legalize equal pay between men and women. In Iceland now it will be illegal to pay men more than women for the work. Under the new rules, companies and government agencies employing at least 25 people will have to obtain government certification of their equal-pay policies.

The Border Security Force (BSF) has launched Operation Alert along the over 200 km long International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) to curb the increasing movement of infiltrating terrorists from across the border.

Ricky Ponting has joined head coach of Delhi Daredevils. Ponting was earlier associated with Indian Premier League champions Mumbai Indians. Ponting will replace Rahul Dravid. Dravid, who is the coach of the Indian under-19 team, had withdrawn due to conflict of interest.

Nearby Technologies Private Limited has tied up with Yes Bank to provide Aadhaar- enabled cardless and pinless ATM service through which, customers can deposit or withdraw money at retailers' place. A retailer can now become an Aadhaar ATM/Aadhaar Bank branch for cash withdrawals and deposits by a customer by using PayNEARBY mobile application on a smart phone. Nearby Technologies Private Limited is a FinTech start-up, founded by a team of professionals from Banking and Payments industry. Yes Bank and Nearby have collaborated with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to launch PayNEARBY.

Telangana Industrial Health Clinic Limited (TIHCL), a State government initiative, has got RBI clearance to register and function as a non-banking finance company (NBFC). It will be the first State promoted and co-financing NBFC. It had won the SKOCH Platinum Award in September 2017 under the smart governance category in the MSME segment.

The Reserve Bank of India will shortly issue Rs10 denomination banknotes in the Mahatma Gandhi (New) Series. The new denomination has the motif of Sun Temple, Konark on the reverse. The base color of the note is Chocolate Brown. The dimension of the banknote will be 63 mm x 123 mm.

Bank of Cyprus has selected Gemalto, an international digital security company to supply world's first biometric payment card for both chip and contactless payments. These cards will use fingerprint recognition instead of a personal identification number (PIN) to authenticate the cardholder. For authentication, the cardholder will have to place his/her fingerprint on the sensor embedded on the card. A comparison will be performed between the scanned fingerprint and the reference biometric data securely stored in the card. The biometric sensor on the card is powered by the payment terminal and does not require an embedded battery.

The managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Ravi Menon, has been named the best central bank governor in Asia-Pacific for 2018 by the UK-based magazine, The Banker. Finance Minister Heng Swee Keat was also given this award in 2011 when he was then MAS's managing director. Over the last three years, the award went to the central bankers of Vietnam, India, and Bangladesh.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has initiated Prompt Corrective Action (PCA) against public sector lender Allahabad Bank, owing to its high net Non-Performing Assets (NPAs) and negative Return on Assets (RoA) for two consecutive years. The action would contribute to the overall improvement in risk management, asset quality, profitability, efficiency of the bank. The RBI has initiated similar action against other public sector banks, including IDBI Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and UCO Bank. The RBI in April 2017 had issued a new set of enabling provisions under the revised PCA framework with a clause that if the bank does not show improvement then it could be either be merged or taken over by other bank.